Disclaimer: I don't own any IPs that might appear in the story
The Council of Thirteen
Book Four: The Thirteenth Lord
Family
Chapter 2: Expansions
Beta:
Six years later, an eighteen year old Dominique Tredecim found herself in the Ural Mountains facing off against the guardian spirit of the local forest. Standing across from her in the clearing was a Leshy. The forest spirit had a tall lanky humanoid body made of a multitude of roots twisted together, long claws and a head made out of the skull of a stag complete with an impressive set of antlers. It was frankly quite intimidating but Dom had seen worse and calmly approached the spirit.
"I acknowledge the Thirteenth Lord of the Council of the Thirteen," the spirit said in a surprisingly human voice. "Why have you come?"
Guess, it's taken enough human life lately and absorbed their souls to humanise it somewhat. Somehow I don't think that'll make my job any easier though.
"Do you really need to ask?" Dom asked, crossing her arms and glaring at the forest spirit. "You've been attacking people lately. A lot of people. So much so that you've caught the attention of the Council, as my being here proves."
Though that had more to do with the killings upsetting the delicate political balance between the various factions, both magical and mundane, in the region. Between the Carpathian vampires, magic covens of various competing (often violently so) schools of magic, and the local Russian government, the area was a powder keg. One in which a homicidal Leshy was not a welcome addition to the boiling pot.
"Trespassers." The spirit hissed. "Trespassers who violated the sanctity of my woods and cut down my trees."
"They were illegal loggers, of course they did." Dom said with a sigh. "You know what you should've done. Inform the local authorities and have them handle it."
"And they would've done nothing. The other magicals are too preoccupied with their own petty conflicts whilst the mundanes are too deeply in the pockets of the criminals to act." The Leshy retorted. "No, the only way to ensure the safety of my forest is to cleanse it of all humans. I have tolerated their intrusion and increasingly exploitative presence long enough."
"You do recall that such a culling would include several villages whose people have lived peacefully on your lands for generations." Dom reminded the spirit sharply even as she gathered her magic for what she feared would be the inevitable fight that lay ahead.
"I do," the Leshy said, sounding genuinely regretful.
"However!" It added, it's voice losing all other emotion and leaving nothing but a burning anger. "Enough is enough! I will no longer tolerate humans on my lands. If that means the villagers must pay the price for their fellow humans' ill treatment of my woods as well then so be it!"
"You know I can't let you do that." Dom said as she cloaked herself in a visible aura of darkness, adding on another layer of protection to her omnipresent array of defensive wards. "That'll I have to stop you?"
"Do your worst, Thirteenth Lord." The Leshy said as it threw its hands towards her, sending a variety of floral projectiles shooting out of its arms at her.
Conjuring a wall of shadows between herself and her attacker with a distracted thought, Dom used the ever trusty Shadow Step spell to teleport behind the Leshy where she proceeded to swing her arm at its unguarded back. The motion was accompanied by a void blade forming around her arm that bit deeply into the spirit's wooden body.
Dom had expected the Leshy to at least flinch at the wound but it instead responded by growing a new limb from the mass of roots and branches that made up its body which it promptly used to slam into her.
The Thirteenth Lord was so caught off guard by the unexpected move that she was too slow in teleporting away, allowing the Leshy's new limb to forcefully push her back and wrap its claws around her in a vice grip. Squeezing tight, the spirit tried to crush Dom even as it swung her repeatedly against the ground in a bid to bludgeon her to death.
It was thanks to her wards that kept Dom survived the experience unscathed. Fortunately, they were rated for a lot more damage than the spirit was dealing. And as she regained her bearings a second later, she slipped straight out of its grasp with a Shadow Step.
Reappearing from the realm of shadows, Dom launched a brace of void missiles at the Leshy. To her surprise, it made no move to either raise a barrier or evade the attack and it struck the spirit dead on, disintegrating sizable chunks of its body.
What in the world is it playing at? Dom thought as she used another Shadow Step to teleport out of the sharpened branches and other woody projectiles that the Leshy fired at her in retaliation.
As she returned to the material plane a second later, the answer to her question presented itself. In a sickening display that looked like its body was bulging with cancerous growths, new roots and branches erupted from the Leshy's damaged body and grew exponentially.
Looking up at the end product as she teleported out of the car sized fist that it swung at her, Dom could only quirk an incredulous eyebrow. The spirit had transformed itself into a giant that stood about 140 feet. Despite the somewhat unnerving transformation it had thankfully kept its general shape with even the stag skull resizing to its new proportions.
"Since when can a local spirit manage something like this!?" Dom vented as she teleported out of the way of the Mack truck sized chunk of mountain that the kaiju-sized Leshy had tossed her way.
"It is thanks to the blessing of the Green Queen of the Woodsea that I have this power." The Leshy proclaimed proudly. "And it is with this power that I shall defeat you, Thirteenth Lord!"
Who or what is he talking about? Dom wondered as she teleported above the gargantuan forest spirit.
"We'll see about that," Dom retorted, setting aside the question for later as she clasped her hands in front of her with both her pointer fingers extended. "Void Cannon!"
An orb of impenetrable darkness formed at the tips of her pointer fingers as she spoke her incantation, rapidly growing in size with each syllable that left her lips. Until as she finished, it had grown from the size of a pinprick to that of a volleyball. It was only then that the nothingness gathered by the spell was unleashed in a torrent of destructive power that vaporized the Leshy's gigantic body.
That the spell also destroyed a good chunk of the surrounding area and left behind an impressively sized crater was neither here nor there. Collateral damage was unavoidable after all.
"Better to be safe than sorry," Dom decided as she wordlessly used a Fly spell to arrest her descent. "Let loose my Void Hounds."
As her spell took effect, a shadowy aura formed around her body and from it shot out a dozen strong pack of creatures made out of void energy that bore a strong resemblance to a greyhound. That is if greyhounds had pitch black fur, white pupil less eyes, and tended towards looking emaciated. Oh, and who walked on air as easily as if it was solid ground.
Despite the differences, Dom's familiars were just as affectionate as the canines they resembled however and they barked and whined happily at being summoned, taking turns to rub themselves against her body and receive scratches behind their ears.
"It's good to see you boys too," Dom told her overgrown puppies with a laugh as she ruffled the back of the last Hound's neck. "But I didn't summon you guys to play. I need you to hunt down any pieces of that Leshy I missed."
Being the obedient and dutiful familiars that they were, the Hounds barked their understanding and in streaks of black lightning shot off to begin their hunt.
"You won't get away, you know that, right?" Dom asked conversationally as she flew through the Ural forests after her quarry, her Hounds ahead of her.
The Leshy knew better than to reply instead choosing to keep running, buying itself a precious few seconds more of existence. To be honest, Dom's Hounds could've caught it by now if they wanted to and were merely toying with the spirit. Unimpeded by the dense woodland as they phased in and out of obstacles, whether natural or thrown up by their prey, as if they weren't even there, they zipped all around the Leshy in a tightening circle that they could easily have closed long ago.
Normally Dom wouldn't have condone needlessly dragging out her targets' suffering like this but she was making an exception today. For one, her Hounds hadn't had a chance to play like this in a while and she wanted to pamper them a little. Secondly, the Leshy had pissed her off by splitting off a dozen clones of itself that she and her poor Hounds had spent the last hour hunting down. So pardon her if she was feeling less gracious than usual now that she finally had the last clone at her mercy.
Just that thought had a cruel smile spread across her face but even as it did, she froze.
What am I doing! She chided herself, as she shook her head in dismay. I'm better than this!
"Playtime's over boys!" She said, as she finished rebuking herself. "Finish it!"
At her command, her familiars shot towards the Leshy as bolts of black lightning. The spirit tried to lash out with its arms and pseudopods made of coiled vines, but the Hounds just phased through the physical attacks like they weren't there to bite down on its body and drag it to the ground. Together the twelve Hounds pinned the struggling Leshy to the ground to await Dom's judgement.
"You've given me a lot more trouble than I expected." Dom admitted as she landed next to the rogue forest guardian. "Mind telling me about this Green Queen that helped you manage that?"
"You are unworthy of knowing her mysteries, human." The Leshy spat, seemingly having lost the respect it had seemed to hold for Dom when they'd first met.
"How about a trade? I can't spare you, not after you tried to kill me. But if you tell me what I want to know I promise to help you deal with those illegal loggers." Dom proposed even as she frowned at the spirit's hostility.
"That is no deal at all." The spirit spat back. "I know of you, Thirteenth. You would do that regardless of whether I tell you anything. You're a bleeding heart!"
"Then how about repaying my kindness with the information?"
"I make no fool's bargains." The Leshy said with a glare. "Enough of this. You will not change my mind and there is nothing that you are willing to resort to that will allow you to get what you want from me. Let us just end this."
Dom sighed in resignation and nodded, raising her right hand with its pointer finger extended at the Leshy's temple, void energy already gathering at the finger tip.
"I wish I didn't have to do this."
"We rarely get what we wish." The spirit said, sounding sad. "Do your duty, Thirteenth Lord!"
Dom nodded.
"Void bullet," she said, sending a bullet of void energy flying that proceeded to erase the Leshy's head from existence, killing it.
After reporting the loggers to the Russian authorities and leaning on them with the authority of the Council to get them to do something, Dom decided she needed some time to herself to relax. Dealing with the Leshy had been stressful enough, especially when it had turned into a hunt through the Urals when it tried to escape, but then having to work with the corrupt Russian bureaucracy was even worse. So she'd decided to visit Sanctuary.
Sanctuary was a haven for magical beings in Antarctica that was hidden under a glacier and sustained by ambient magic emitted by the nexus of ley lines that empowered the Council. The city was a mish mash of architectural styles from across the myriad of cultures of its inhabitants, themselves coming from the whole spectrum of peoples that the world had to offer. Megalithic stone structures straight out of the pre-Colombian Andean civilizations stood side by side with buildings built in the classical East Asian style and those of European designs from across the ages. Its culture was likewise a cosmopolitan mix that reflected all these diverse roots.
Thus as Dom transited from a paved road built to imitate those of the Ancient Roman Empire onto one built with more modern asphalt, she didn't bat an eyelid. Nor did she pay attention to the truly wide variety of clothes her fellow pedestrians wore, ranging from modern attire to kimonos to flowing druidic robes and everything in between.
Her presence despite being a Lord of the Thirteen also went unnoticed thanks to the various disguise spells she'd cast on herself. They might have earned her a suspicious look or two but many people on the streets of Sanctuary used them, usually to hide some more inhuman aspect of their nature or the other and fit in better, so it amounted to no more than that. Which was a relief, to the locals all the Thirteen Lords of the Council were celebrities, and she really didn't want to have to deal with an adoring crowd right now.
So safe in her anonymity, she walked aimlessly through Sanctuary's streets and let the act of walking bleed off her tension and allowed the happy ambience that the city seemed to always give off to fill her.
Just who or what is the Green Queen of the Woodsea that the Leshy mentioned? Dom thought as she reached a pedestrian scramble near the heart of the city that had a deliberate resemblance to Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo save that no vehicles of any kind were allowed within Sanctuary's limits. And why do I have a bad feeling just thinking of that name?
She was worrying her lip pondering this when she suddenly felt an unnaturally strong pull on her magic. Such pulls were normal for magic users as their innate magic reacted to the environment around them and reached out to let them know that there was one thing or the other that it felt complimented it in some way. Normally this felt like a mild tug on one's senses in some form or the other, this pull however was far from normal. Dom felt her body jerk around to face whatever her magic was reacting with and she broke involuntarily in a run as she closed the distance with said object.
Or make that objects. For seconds later, Dom had pushed through the confused, and somewhat annoyed, crowds of pedestrians and found herself running right into a pair of unknown young women that looked to be roughly the same age as her. That was however about the only clear observation she was able to make before a haze of magic driven instinct overwhelmed her and she pulled the two women to her in a kiss.
It should've been awkward and clumsy. It was Dom's first romantic kiss and it was one with two other people. But it wasn't. Whatever magical reaction was controlling them somehow compensated for all of them and their three bodies slid together in just the right way so that the kiss was just perfect! Or maybe it was the magical high and the lust it induced that was talking. Not that Dom, or the other women, would ever admit to the latter.
The three of them stood there, right in the middle of one of the busiest intersections in all of Sanctuary, making out for what seemed in Dom's addled mind like an eternity and she had never been happier as the other women showered her with love. Literally. As their feelings of adoration, overwhelmed as they were by their magic but still sincere, and confusion but no fear, coursed through her as she felt a magical link be forged between them.
As it did, simple kissing soon became insufficient and Dom allowed the others to explore her body as she returned the favour. Trepidation crept into the burgeoning bond now from all three of them as they crossed a line but still no true fear just growing confusion and a nascent acceptance. This increased intensity in their physical contact accelerated the deepening of the bond which in turn fueled their increasing need for more contact in a positive feedback loop. Thus it was that they had barely begun exploring each other's bodies when someone, Dom would never be able to tell who, pulled her coat off her shoulders and tossed it away.
As it fell to the ground forgotten, Dom managed despite her disorientated state to realize where this would go.
If we don't stop, we'll end up having sex right here!
But she didn't want to stop and she honestly doubted she could even if she wanted to, so she did the next best thing. Gathering what little focus she could manage even as she and her soon-to-be lovers pawed at each other in an increasingly frenzied bid to undress each other, she teleported all three of them onto her bed back in her rooms inside Sanctuary's Governor's Palace. That though was the last fully aware thing she did for the next few hours.
Watching the three young women engage in some rather passionate lovemaking from its perch on the chandelier that hung in the bedroom reserved for the Thirteenth Lord inside Sanctuary's Governor's Palace, a single white spider whose entire body was covered in eyes did a little dance for joy. It was however soon interrupted when a butterfly made of plant matter landed nearby and scoffed.
Why so pleased, Shiro? The butterfly asked telepathically, so as to not disturb the lovebirds below. All you've accomplished is take a page out of Nameless's playbook.
The spider froze and sent the butterfly a glare.
Oh, don't be like that. You know it's true. The butterfly said with a shrug, which was strange coming from a butterfly of all things. But let's continue this at Ellen's. The longer we stay here, the more likely we'll be caught.
With a nod, the spider teleported away followed shortly thereafter by the butterfly itself.
The first thing Dom became aware of when she regained her senses was that the two loves of her life were lying in bed with her, naked and cuddled up to her equally nude side. Clutching her left arm in a tight grip was a petite human of German descent with blonde hair and blue eyes whilst to her right and using her breasts as a pillow was a yuki onna with long light purple hair and blue eyes that had a slight purple tint. The second thing she noticed was that both of them were looking at her with a loving look, but which was slowly shifting to panic.
"Don't panic!" Dom shouted, hoping to head it off. "I think I can explain what happened."
That, thankfully, had the desired effect and the Thirteenth Lord breathed a sigh of relief.
"Y-You can explain why the three of us just jumped each other in the middle of the street and proceeded to have what was an amazing lesbian threesome even though we don't know each other from Eve?" The blonde asked nervously. "And why I now feel like I couldn't live without the two of you?"
"Why we couldn't live without each other," the yuki onna corrected, to which the blonde blushed and nodded.
"I think so," Dom said with a shrug.
"Out with it," the blonde said. "I'd take anything to help make sense of this madness."
"Names first," the yuki onna said. "Whatever the reason, we're connected now. We should at least know each other's names."
Dom and the blonde nodded in agreement.
"Good," the yuki onna said with a smile. "My name is Murasaki Shirayuki. It is a pleasure to meet you, my beloveds."
Suddenly being called by a pet name by a virtual stranger should have been at least somewhat off-putting but Dom actually felt touched by the gesture. A sentiment that the blonde shared if Dom was reading the feelings seeping through their bond right. Though considering what Shirayuki, the blonde and herself had been doing the past few hours they weren't exactly strangers were they? Between that and the bond, probably more of the latter, it honestly felt like the three of them had known each other their entire lives. Heck, Dom was already comfortable enough to trust them with anything - they were having a conversation nude and not even being slightly embarrassed by it - and trusted the two of them with her life.
"I'm Felicia Achleitner," the blonde- No, Felicia, said nervously, the forwardness of earlier melting away as the full weight of the situation seemed to finally settle on her. "I-I hope I was good. I was a virgin and I-"
"So was I," Dom admitted and Shirayuki nodded, indicating it too had been her first time. "So I don't really have anything to gauge it against but-"
"It was wonderful." Shirayuki said reassuringly, even as she shot Dom a quick chiding glare that had her flinching. "Because it was with you, Felicia."
"Thank you, Shirayuki, uh-" Felicia said with a timid smile before she turned to Dom and froze, not in expectation, but realization.
"Y-You're the Thirteenth Lord!" Felicia gasped.
"Yes," Dom said with what she hoped was a roguish smile. "But I'd prefer if you called me Dominique Tredecim, Dom for short."
"I'm, we're, bonded to the Thirteenth Lord!?" Felicia whispered, sounding shocked as she looked to Shirayuki who just nodded, as if it wasn't a surprise.
"How are you not freaking out?" Felicia blurted out, desperately trying to process the latest revelation.
"I recognized Dom at the intersection," Shirayuki explained with a shrug. "I guess you were too enthralled by the influence of our joint magic to notice?"
"I take it that my disguise spells failed at some point?" Dom mused absently. "That might be why no one did anything to stop us for public indecency."
Felicia blushed brilliantly at the reminder of just what they'd done in public.
"They did," Shirayuki nodded, even as she and Dom shared an amused smile at their partner's expense. "Though considering the intensity of our magic at the time, I don't think it was avoidable. I'm honestly surprised you managed to focus enough to teleport us here before we really got going."
"H-How far did we go in public?" Felicia cut in to worriedly ask.
"We were still clothed when we got here." Dom reassured her, whilst Shirayuki glanced around the room for some reason.
"Mostly," she corrected after her survey. "Your coat is missing, Dom, and I think the blouse I was wearing is too. But everything you were wearing is accounted for Felicia."
"Someone saw you topless!?" Felicia growled, shooting Shirayuki an angry look and electric sparks arced off her forehead. If Dom didn't know via their bond that Felicia's anger was directed to those who had violated Shirayuki's modesty, she'd genuinely be worried for her purple haired lover's safety.
"I suppose some people did," Shirayuki agreed with a shrug. "Now calm down and just be thankful that Dom managed to get us somewhere private before things got more out of hand."
Felicia blushed as she realized that things could've been worse and hastily turned to Dom.
"Thank you, Lady-"
"Dom," she corrected sternly.. "Call me Dom."
"Thank you, D-Dom." Felicia said sincerely.
"No thanks are necessary," Dom said with a smile. "I was as much saving myself from the embarrassment as I was saving you and Shirayuki. Besides, if I'm right, we're a team now. Now and forever, so it's nothing."
Even as the words left her mouth, Dom could feel their bond pulse with a sense of rightness. Like what she'd said was the truth and even their shared magic recognized that fact.
"N-Now and forever?" Felicia asked, her eyes wide in worry and shock.
"I think you're right." Shirayuki agreed. "I felt our magic resonate with what you said, but how can it be? What kind of bond has formed between us?"
"Felicia, you okay?" Dom asked the blonde worriedly as she pulled her knees to her chest and refused to look at them.
"Yes, I'm just- I dunno how I feel right now," Felicia said, her voice and her feel in their bond radiating confusion. "Just, uh, tell us what you think happened. I, we, need to know."
Dom looked to Shirayuki uncertainly and the yuki onna frowned worriedly but nevertheless nodded.
"Alright," Dom allowed before she hesitantly presented her hypothesis. "We all felt the magical pull at the intersection. We wouldn't have done what we, uh, did, if we didn't."
Both Felicia and Shirayuki nodded at that.
"So magical pulls happen when our magic reacts to things around us. This can range from mundane things to a degree of danger sense to helping us pick out complimentary artifacts to use as our Mystic Codes or our compatibility with other people."
Shirayuki perked up at the last bit. "You don't mean-"
Dom nodded.
"But our reaction was-"
"Extreme," Dom agreed. "Which means-"
"Our compatibility must've been equally extreme." Felicia said as she shifted to a kneeling position. "And it is. Can you feel our bond? Our shared magic?"
Dom reached out to it and felt it practically sing out with harmonious joy.
"Wow," Shirayuki said, her eyes wide in awe even as the experience rendered Dom speechless.
"Exactly," Felicia agreed. "My family are Mystic Code crafters. Understanding magical bonds is part of the trade and I've never seen, heard of or read of any bond with as high levels of compatibility as ours. Not even legendarily in love and devoted couples."
"But that's-"
"Implausibly unlikely," Dom said with a frown, cutting Shirayuki off. "Or the work of a higher being."
"Well, if a god did decide to bless us with this I am most grateful to it for doing so." Yuki said with a smile. "Being bonded with you two? It's a blessing beyond compare!"
Both Dom and Felicia blushed brilliantly at that, especially when they felt Shirayuki's honesty through their bond.
"L-Likewise," Felicia said hesitantly, offering them both a timid smile.
"Me too," Dom said with a grin, reaching out in tandem as they each took one of Felicia's hands and gave them a comforting squeeze.
The three of them sat there in Dom's bed for a moment, just smiling at each other and luxuriating in the joy of their bond.
All good things must come to an end however and their moment was broken when there was a knock on the door to the room.
"Lady Tredecim and guests," the sound of a maid said from the other side of the door. "Sorry for the interruption but a party looking for a Miss Shirayuki has just arrived. How would you like us to respond?"
Dom shot Shirayuki a look and she just smiled nervously.
"Up to meeting your in-laws?"
Meeting Shirayuki's parents and family did not turn out to be much of a pain at all. In fact they were overjoyed that she was bonded to one of the Thirteen Lords.
"A party! This deserves a party!" Her father, Hayato, said excitedly once Dom had explained everything to him, leaving her staring at him in shock.
"He's excitable." Shirayuki leaned over on the sofa in the sitting room they were in to whisper into Dom's ear. "My whole family is. You'll get used to it."
Dom could only nod and watch in shock as the Murasaki family, Shirayuki's parents, siblings, and her aunts and uncles, all rapidly began planning a party for dinner. They even dragged a couple of the Governor's Palace servants into it! Servants who were looking towards Dom questioningly.
"Felicia?" Dom asked, turning to her other bonded that was seated on her other side with a helpless look. "A party?"
"I'm, uh, fine with it?" The blonde said with a timid grin that belied her true amusement with the situation as Dom sensed through their bond.
Looks like I'm outvoted. Dom thought in resignation, as she nodded her acquiescence to the servants. Something which got a cheer from the Murasakis.
"I just hope my family is half as accepting about this as they are," Felicia said, smiling nervously as the anxiety of her family's response ate at her on the inside.
"They will," Shirayuki reassured her as she went round the back of the sofa to wrap her arms around Felicia's shoulders.
"And even if they aren't, you'll have us." Dom added putting an arm around Felicia as well.
The blonde just offered them both a grateful smile.
Sadly, Felicia's fears for her family's reception to the news seemed to be justified. Not only had they reacted to the trio's visit the next morning coolly, having been shuffled quickly into the patriarch's study but he had sat throughout Dom's explanation of the situation with a face of stern disapproval.
"So you're saying that my daughter is essentially married to the two of you?" Jubstacheit, Felicia's father, said from his throne-like chair behind the ornately crafted, ebony desk inside his study.
Felicia flinched at his tone and Dom reached out to take her hand, even as Shirayuki sent her comfort through their bond whilst glaring at Jubstacheit.
"Is that a problem?" Dom asked pointedly.
Jubstacheit moved to speak, but was preempted by his wife and Felicia's mother, Justeaze, who had sat throughout the whole explanation looking blank faced.
"It is simply sudden." The woman, who looked nothing more than an older, more mature version of Felicia herself, said with a tentative smile after shooting her husband a quelling look. "And I understand that's not your fault. I am to understand that what happened was beyond the control of any of you, correct?"
"Yes," Dom nodded.
Justeaze shot her husband a look at that even as he grew less stern.
Did he think Shirayuki and I somehow forced Felicia into this!? Dom thought angrily, only barely managing to keep her anger at the ludicrous insinuation in check.
"Then, is it possible that this bond can be annulled?"
"No!" Felicia shouted furiously as she stood so quickly that the chair she was sitting in went flying. "You won't touch this! This is mine and I love it! I'll not have you, either of you, ruin it! Not for anything, especially not whatever stupid marriage contract you might've been planning for me."
"This isn't what this is about!" Her father shouted back, jumping to his feet to glare across his desk at his daughter.
"Felicia, we're just worried about you." Her mother said gently.
Felicia ignored her entirely and focused all her attention on her father. "Then what is it? You just want to make my life mi-"
Before Felicia could say something she'd regret, Dom cast a quick Silence spell on her and Shirayuki used her slight superhuman strength to pick her up in a princess carry before walking out of the room.
"We'll be going now," Dom said, shooting her in-laws a glare. "Perhaps we can do this again when we're all less agitated."
Jubstacheit looked ready to say something scathing but his wife shot him a look before addressing Dom.
"Yes, that might be best." She said diplomatically. "Oh, and Lady Dominique?"
"Yes?" Dom asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Take care of our daughter please." She said, sounding genuine. "Despite what Felicia might think about us, we do love her and want the best for her."
"I will," Dom said, a little shaken by the unexpected request. She'd felt Felicia's long repressed anger towards her parents and even seen glimpses of their neglect and disrespect of her desires when she'd lost her cool earlier, so that they would ask this of her was a surprise.
Perhaps there's been a misunderstanding here. Dom thought as both elder Achleitners nodded gratefully and she turned to leave. I'll have to talk to Felicia about it.
"I'm sure they'll come round." Shirayuki cajoled as she, Felicia and Dom sat down for dinner that night in the Governor's Palace.
"Yes, they don't seem quite as terrible as you think they are Felicia." Dom offered. "Not if what they said as we left was anything to go by."
"Maybe," Felicia said with a sigh. "I know I overreacted back there. It's just they're so demanding, you know? All my life, they've had expectation after expectation for me to meet and not once did they ever take into account what I liked or wanted when they made them."
"I can empathise," Dom said as unwanted memories of her Father crossed her mind.
"I'm sorry," Felicia said immediately. "I'm sorry I reminded you of him."
"I know," Dom told her reassuringly. "It's fine."
Felicia and Shirayuki both shot her worried looks but took her word for it.
"What do they having expectations of you have to do with them not accepting our bond?" Shirayuki asked, shifting the conversation back to the topic at hand.
"Well, they probably had an expectation of me marrying someone they had in mind. Like someone who can help the family business or something."
"I think I have that covered," Dom teased. "I am a Lord of the Thirteen."
Felicia blinked, as if that fact just dawned on her.
"That's true," she said with a confused frown. "But then why were they upset?"
"Maybe like your mother said, they are upset by the suddenness of it? I know you humans, unlike yokai like me, tend to take a while to decide on who they marry, so perhaps they think you've made a rash decision."
"That makes sense." Dom said, nodding in agreement with Shirayuki's hypothesis. The point she brought up about yokai generally being more receptive to bonds also went a long way to explaining her family's acceptance of their bond. Whilst not every member of the Murasaki clan were yokai, enough of them were that they were probably familiar with how sometimes they or their kinfolk married someone based on magical compatibility after what humans would've considered an unreasonably short courtship.
Felicia's frown deepened as she was forced to reevaluate what she'd thought about her parents. Dom could sense that she was still unsure of what to think on the matter when a moment later she shook her head.
"Whatever, let's not talk about them anymore. They'll either accept our bond or not. It's not like we can break it. We can't, right?"
"No," Dom said with a shake of her head. "Based on the admittedly limited research I've managed to conduct today, our bond is an extreme form of a marriage bond. The literal till death do us part variety. Considering that… I don't even think death will break it."
Felicia breathed a sigh of relief and even Shirayuki seemed reassured to hear that.
They fell into a comfortable silence after that as they ate their meal and it was not till the main course that conversation picked up again.
"So I know we spent last night in my room," Dom said, recalling with a mixture of relief and disappointment how the three of them had ended up collapsing into her bed after partying into the wee hours last night with Shirayuki's family. "But I've arranged separate rooms for both of you tonight."
"Why?" Shirayuki asked with a frown.
Before Dom could reply, Felicia chuckled. "I appreciate the effort Dom but you, out of all of us, should know it won't work. Our bond won't let us be apart too long. So sleeping apart is just impossible. Not so early into our union. We're stuck together."
"I had to try." Dom said with a sigh. "I hate how I'm being manipulated by my magic like this."
"You didn't seem to mind when we first met," Shirayuki said, winking at Dom lasciviously.
"Shirayuki! You actually remember what happened?" Felicia asked with a pout. "All I remember is being in a very pleasurable trance. I don't remember any details at all."
"That pretty much describes what I remember as well."
"There are benefits to being a yokai," Shirayuki said with a smirk. "But don't fret my beloveds, I'm more than happy to show you what we did later if you want. Maybe it'll jog your memory?"
Dom and Felicia both blushed furiously at that, causing Shirayuki to giggle at their expense
"That can wait till later." Dom said when she finally found her voice again. "We need to finish our dinner first."
"Right," Felicia said hurriedly as she dove into her food eagerly.
Dom followed her lead even as Shirayuki enjoyed one last giggle at their expense before doing the same.
In the end, they rushed through the rest of the meal. Finishing it an unseemly quick amount of time before racing back to their shared bedroom. It was an impolite thing to do to the staff who had put so much effort into preparing the meal, but nobody commented and the three young women were too eager to enjoy each other to care even if they had.
Nine months later, a visibly pregnant Dom was lying down on the massive bed in Sanctuary's Governor's Palace going through the early stages of labour.
The Palace had become her permanent residence after it was decided by the Council that she would be the Sanctuary's Governor. She had not proposed the vote but she had supported it nonetheless. Her family lived in Sanctuary so it made sense after all. That doing so put an end to what was a nomadic life of drifting from one safehouse to another across the world between missions and gave her an actual place to call home was just a bonus. One that was paying off as it provided her with a safe place with which to give birth.
And wasn't her pregnancy a surprise. She'd known intellectually that magically bonded same-sex couples could conceive children resulting in actual pregnancy for lesbians or in the case of gay men outright spontaneous generation but she'd never expected it to happen to her. At least not so soon! She wasn't even nineteen yet and she was already about to give birth to her first child!
Her distracted musings were brought to an abrupt end however when she was hit by the latest contraction, one intense enough to cause the seasoned warrior who was no stranger to pain to wince.
"Are you alright?" Felicia asked from her bedside where she'd been keeping vigil since the contractions began.
"Yes," Dom told her wife reassuringly. "These contractions are nothing. I've dealt with worse pain before. It just surprised me that's all."
Felicia rolled her eyes disbelievingly even as the attending healer, a matronly woman by the name of Francois, chuckled.
"Mayhaps, my lady, but they are getting closer together." She asked. "Are they becoming more painful?"
"A little?" Dom admitted. "It's hard to tell."
"I'll take your word for it." Francois said with a nod. "It means that the baby is coming soon but not for a while yet."
"Can it come sooner?" A harried looking Shirayuki said as she ducked into the birthing room, though considering she was still happily sucking on a lollipop she couldn't be that flustered. "It's a madhouse out there. I don't know how long we can keep them all waiting before something crazy happens."
"And whose fault is that?" Felicia asked with a teasing giggle. "It's your whole extended family that's decided they want to encamp themselves outside to await the baby."
"Oh, really?" Shirayuki retorted with a chuckle. "It's not just my family though."
"What do you mean?"
"Your parents are here too, Felicia." Shirayuki said as she took a seat next to the blonde.
Felicia gasped at the news and quickly shot Dom a lost look.
"Go talk to them," Dom encouraged. "You heard Francois, the baby won't be here for a while. You have time."
"And I'll be here in the meantime." Shirayuki assured her.
"They are right, Lady Felicia. Probably hours more. At least." Francois added. "You have plenty of time, my lady."
Felicia bit her lower lip indecisively but eventually nodded.
"I'll be right back, okay?" Felicia said as she stood. "Call me if anything happens. Anything at all."
"We will," Dom reassured her. "Now go see your parents."
Felicia took a deep breath to psyche herself up and then turned to leave. It was time for her to face her demons.
Watching her do so, Dom smiled. It seemed today they wouldn't just be welcoming someone new to the family but also healing a longstanding rift within it.
If all goes well, this will truly be a day worth remembering.
Done!
I fully expect that some readers might think the Leshy scenes were tacked on and it kinda was and wasn't at the same time. They weren't because I always intended to give a glimpse into what Dom did on her missions but they were tacked onto the second part of the chapter which is really its meat. Dom's bonding with Felicia and Yuki being the more important part that I wanted to cover. In the end, I just didn't think the Leshy portion deserves its own separate chapter so I lumped them here. Hope it didn't undermine the chapter's quality.
Not that I expect much on that front. Lolz. I do my best but if it sucks, then it sucks. If you'd be so kind, please do let me know whether this chapter does or not through a review. That would be greatly appreciated.
That's it from me this time, so till next time Прощай!