You wake up of your own volition the next morning… surprisingly late into said morning, in fact. It appears you've been allowed to sleep in today, presumably since everyone knew you probably wouldn't want to get out of bed after yesterday.

You're not alone, as Ivule has apparently seized upon the opportunity to sleep in, the little ruby-haired monster tucked comfortably into your side and still wearing her red pajamas. Her entire body is tucked tightly against you while her little arms wrap around your body…

… so that she can hold hands with another of your brood. Akael has your other side in her grasp and meets her sister's hands at your middle. A smile drifts across your face despite your sadness at Kyna's absence, and you reach up with both hands to rub the heads of each of the girls.

Akael blinks into consciousness and looks up at you sleepily. A wide, dopey-looking smile lights up her face and she closes her eyes once more, leaning her head into your hand. Ivule, on the other hand, tightens her grip on you and stalwartly refuses to acknowledge that she's awake as she snuggles closer to you.

"Good morning Akael." You say sweetly.

"Morning, mama." She replies with equal sugar.

"Good morning, Ivule."

There's no response, so you decide to go for a sure play to get her to reveal her deception. "Oh? What's this pretty little treasure?"

"That's mine!" Her ruby-red eyes snap open as she looks up in a panic, focusing on you after a few moments as she realizes she's been had… though she still tries to play it off as though she's just waking up. "Ah! Good morning, mommy!"

"Very good." You reply, leaning in to little her cheeks with kisses, an act which makes her giggle. You repeat the procedure with Akael, who responds similarly, and finally manage to drag yourself out of bed.


Breakfast has already been had, but Meimei wisely set aside some for you. Akael and Ivule already ate, a fact you're thankful to Eluvi for. You don't want them skipping meals so young.

A few minutes back on a skillet sees your breakfast omelet warmed to satisfaction, and you pack it away with more gusto than you expected. You… didn't eat much last night, now that you think back. The chef herself walks in, her eyes widening in surprise.

"Mama! You should have told me you were up, I would have warmed it for you."

"I can work a skillet for a minute, Mei." You reply, your lips quirking up. "But I appreciate the thought."

Her cheeks puff out a little, but she doesn't argue. "Are you feeling okay?"


"Not really." You admit as you spear a bit of omelet on your fork. "Saying goodbye to your sister, then hearing about my sister being in trouble, then spending a few days before having to say goodbye to her…"

You pop the morsel into your mouth, chewing it slowly. Once your mouth is clear, you continue your thought. "It's just a lot."

"Do you…" Mei looks around, almost as if she feels she's doing something untoward. "Do you want to talk about it?"

You look the girl… no, the woman over. Once upon a time the idea of dropping your troubles on your daughters' laps would have been utterly abhorrent to you, but Mei and the older girls aren't children anymore.

"There's not much to talk about." You reply, gesturing for her to sit next to you. "I've only ever had a few people close to me before recently, Meimei."

She blushes in embarrassment as you call her by her childish nickname. "You, um… you mentioned the other angels didn't really like you."

"They hate me." You correct her matter-of-factly. "And for reasons I'm only really beginning to understand. But yes. It was just me, Mika, and Kyna for a long time, and Mika… well, she tries and she loves me, but she's busy. Once I was old enough to stand on my own she wasn't able to divert as much time to me as she used to — and from what I gather things got out of hand just from the time she already did spend on me."

"So you were alone for a long time." She puts the pieces together. "Until Kynael showed up."

"Yes. Mother gave her to me when she was…" You frown, thinking for a moment. "About as old as your youngest sisters. She was very shy back then, wouldn't speak a word."

You smile at the memory of the silent little angel. "Then puberty hit, and… well. She never really shut up after that." You laugh for a moment, pausing only when Mei grabs your hand and squeezes it. "Sorry. Anyways, she was basically all I had for a long time. Even when she grew up and didn't need me anymore, she still went out of her way to visit."

You sigh. "To be honest, I'd been worried. I knew in my heart she would still love me, but… well, after so many centuries of scorn, part of me feared she'd grow to hate me like the others."

"She never did, though." Mei says, a note of fondness for her aunt in her voice.

"Not once. She actually got in trouble more than once for attacking our sisters 'unprovoked.' She never admitted it, but I always knew they must have set her off by saying something about me or blackfeathers in general."

"How many times is more than once?" Mei asks. When did she get so close? She's almost leaning against you now.

"Oh, once a year or so. Two or three if the first time didn't shut them up." You shrug.

"Did she win?"

"All the time." You grin. "You wouldn't know it from how she acts, but she's a little powerhouse. Not enough of one that I don't worry about her, but… well, if she were given to Mika instead of me she'd probably be leading other angels to hunt fallen paladins and the like."

"We're getting off track, though. What I'm getting at is that once I Fell and realized I'd probably never see her again? That destroyed me, Mei."

She winces, as if feeling the sudden soul-crushing ache you feel at the memory. "I spent the first week or so in a daze holding on to this deluded hope that somehow what had happened wasn't real and that I'd wake up the next day and just be an angel again… and Kyna would be right there with me, the one consistent bit of joy I had in my life."

You hear a sniffle and pause, looking at Mei in concern as she rubs her eyes. "Sorry. This is a lot to drop on you, I'll stop."

"No!" She replies, shaking her head. "It's okay. I want to hear it."

You reach over to wipe the tears from her cheeks with a clean napkin before continuing. "I guess what I'm trying to get at, Mei, is that for a lot of my life I never really had to say goodbye to anyone I cared about. The first time I ever had to face that idea was the worst day of my life."

"So having to say goodbye to Lia and Kyna reminds you of that?"

You're silent for a moment. "Yeah. I know it's…" You almost call it stupid, but you recall at the last second chastising your eldest daughter for writing off her feelings in that same manner. "…it's strange. I know I'll see them both again sooner or later, it's just…"

"Part of you worries you won't." She gives voice to the terror that lurks at the back of your mind, making you shiver and nod. Her arms wrap around you tightly. "I don't think I can really help you with that, mama, but… I'm sure it'll be fine. You know Lia, she's as strong as she is empty-headed."

You snort with laughter despite yourself. "She's a bit over-focused, is how I'd put it."

"Right? And she's your and mom's daughter. She'll be fine. And Aunt Kynael… I mean, she doesn't seem like the type of person to not come back if it's at all possible."

"That's understating it a little, but yes."

"So you know they'll be back. Both of them. And in the meantime you have all of us with you too." She mumbles something you just barely make out the tail end of. "… have more if Zaphi and Ava weren't such idiots."

"What was that?" You ask, mom instincts activating. "Are Zaphi and Ava getting up to something?"

"Nope!" You have to give Mei credit — she lies as easily as she breathes when she wants to. "Finish your omelet, mama. It'll get cold."

"Who's the parent here again?" You ask, obeying her regardless.

"You're my mama but this is my kitchen." She sniffs with faux-haughtiness. "Aunt Asteria said so."


You know who you haven't visited recently? Eona. The brothel mistress has yet to see your recently-changed form, or hear about how you defeated a dragon. Honestly, you just have a need to torment her at the moment.

A bit of book-based teleportation shenanigans later and you're in your room at the brothel, which… seems to remain empty. Eona's holding to her promise in regards to that, thankfully. She has changed up the furnishings in here, however — you see a copy of her signature pile of pillows next to the bed.

Is… is she staying in here sometimes?

Putting the thought out of your mind for the moment, you poke your head out into the hall and happen to catch the eye of Sieglinde, Eona's orcish sister. "Mara's wrath, no wonder the black harpies are raking it in these days." She mutters as she sees you. "You heading out or sticking around today?"

You frown at her odd epithet. "I'm sticking around. Looking for your sister, actually."

"My… oh, you know? Shoulda figured she'd tell you." The blue-skinned orc grins. "Anyways, she's downstairs welcoming a friend of hers. You could head down, but…"

Sieglinde's eyes take on a malicious gleam you recognize, as it's the exact sort of malicious gleam your daughters get when they're planning to torment their younger siblings. "If you wanted to, say… wait in her room to surprise her, I'm sure she'd take that well."

You doubt it somehow, but at the same time the idea is appealing. What do you want to do?


"I'll be waiting in her office, then." You tell Sieglinde, and the sheer glee radiating off her is almost enough to put you off the idea.

"Great! Here's a key, be sure to lock it behind you so she doesn't get suspi… er, so no-one else gets any weird ideas. Oh, and I'll be by in a sec to give you something extra. For the surprise."

You do as she asks and make your way into Eona's office, oddly aware that this is the first time you'll be in there without her. Somewhat disappointingly, there's nothing inherently scandalous in there — it's just her room sans Eona herself.

Sieglinde drops her extra bit for the surprise with surprising swiftness. You open it up, and… is that lingerie?

Very risque lingerie, in fact, even by the standards of those lascivious garments. It's little more than a pair of lacey underwear, some strings to give the breasts some heft, and a little bit of fluff and lace here and there for flavor.

Either Sieglinde has a good eye or she got lucky, because at a glance it looks like it'll fit you pretty handily.

Do you put on the lingerie to give Eona some extra oomph in her surprise?


You shuck off your robe and hide it beneath the many pillows. The lingerie slips onto you with ease, and soon you're the picture of a Fallen Angel — all sensuous curves, seduction, and black wings.

Wait a second, that's not a bad idea. Plucking a few feathers that look like they're close to naturally falling off anyways, you lay a trail that will naturally draw the eyes of your prey as she enters the room, leading her gaze directly to you.

Now it's only a question of time. You settle into her pillow collection, trying out various poses to pass the time…

--

"… don't know what she's thinking, Sieg." You hear Eona's voice and dainty footsteps as she rises towards her office. Quickly, you strike the pose you found to be most alluring (well, most comfortable, at least).

"She's thinking she wants more money, duh." Sieglinde's voice answers. "Why not take her up on it?"

"Because I'm not certain a westerner would appreciate… what's with that look?"

"What look?"

"You look excited. Too excited."

"Got me a date later."

The disbelief in Eona's voice is palpable. "You? A date? What, did you find the one woman in the city who hasn't heard of you already?"

"Yeah, a cute redhead from back home. Bet me she couldn't take me in a fight, and if I win…"

There's a rattle from the doorknob as Eona fiddles with the lock. "Ugh. Say no more. Honestly, how my own blood can reduce lovemaking to such a brutish — don't you leave yet, Sieglinde! Ah, damn it. Poor girl's going to be walking with a limp for a while, if I know my sister…"

She trails off as the door opens and she spots a black feather on the floor, then slowly follows the trail all the way to your lounging form.


Eona's brain clearly stops functioning correctly as she drinks in the sight of you. Any fear you had that she would be annoyed at your intrusion evaporates as she loses herself in your curves and crevasses, and confidence ignites in your breast as you slowly rise from the pile of pillows and make your way across the room.

Her mouth opens as if to speak, but all that comes out are a surprised girlish squeak as you seize her arm and tug her closer, making the smaller woman's face press into the side of your breast. You feel a small, wet nip against your flesh and realize that she's instinctively kissed your skin, an action which seems to surprise her as much as it surprises you.

"Can't wait?" You ask her, your voice dropping down into the 'sensual seductress' octaves.

"N-no, I simply wished to… there was a… it's only polite, you see…"

Her litany of feeble half-finished excuses continue as you drag her over to her usual seat, laying her across the bed as her excuses peter off and her mind accepts what's happening.

"You… you planned this." She accuses as you lift the bit of clothe that normally drapes over her thighs and lower lips, revealing the brothel mistress's intimacy to you for the first time. She's a lovely shade of pale pink that only just stands out against her pale northern skin, with just a bit of groomed blonde pubic hair that serves to frame the rest of her all the better.

"Your sister did, actually." You reply as you give her a little kiss of your own against her inner thigh. You're rewarded with a sudden influx of arousal from her, making the already strong scent of her excitement all the more overpowering.

"Ah!" She squeals as you litter her thighs with nibbles and kisses, trailing up and down them but never going so far as to actually reach her glistening pink lips. "S-Sieglinde. I should have… nng! Realized. I knew there isn't a woman left in the city willing to risk her."

"Hush. We're not here to talk about family." You tell her breathing along her bare sex in the process and making her squirm. "Well… not about an already-established family, that is."

Leaving the implication hanging in the air, you stop with your teasing and let your tongue lash along her slit. Her reaction is immediate, soft-silky thighs squeezing inwards as her pussy does the same, greedily clenching down as if begging for you to stop with the foreplay already.

"Oh? Liked that, did you?" You tease as you bring your hands up to squeeze her thighs. They're quite nice, and you happen to be in a position to judge — silky smooth and delightfully soft. You could see letting her squeeze your head with them for a bit, if only because you know she lacks the strength to do much.

"Of course I liked it." She snaps. "It's a natural reaction, as you well know."

"Natural reaction to what?" You ask as you return to nibbling her thighs — to her evident frustration.

"To you licking me, you incorrigible—"

"What, me specifically?" You grin up at her and she realizes her folly, her cheeks turning rosier than they already are.

"You—! You know what I mean!"

"Mmm…." You intone as you trail your tongue tantalizingly close to her pussy once more, this time without actually touching the delightfully throbbing slit itself. "Do I? I don't know…"

"Stop that."

"'thtop whuh?" You ask as you continue liberally applying your tongue to everything that isn't her genitalia.

"You know what."

"No I don't."

"Teasing me, damn you!" She hisses, her hands cupping her small breasts.

"'mnah teathin' you." You lie, this time swirling your tongue agonizingly close to her clitoris, which your not-teasing has coaxed into just barely poking out of its hood.

"Just… what, you want me to ask nicely, is that it?"

"You jutht have to tell me whuh you wan'." You reply, looking up at her innocently.

Her cheeks redden once more, this time as her pride is challenged… but it's far too late for her to fight back now. Doing her best to maintain a haughty air, she reaches down to spread her lips for you. "Please ravish me with your tongue. Happy?"

Instead of answering you dive in for real this time, lapping at her folds like… well, like an expert in a brothel. Not a trace of her pussy goes unexplored by your tongue as you delve its every depth and crevasse. For a moment you find yourself wishing you had a serpentine tongue like your draconic lovers, but from Eona's moans and mewls you're at least content in knowing you don't need such a thing.

Either due to your earlier teasing or just a sensitivity to this act in general Eona doesn't last long. The telltale spasms of climax rock her body while the majority of your tongue is still in her, meaning you get a delightful little massage on your organ to go along with the flavor of her orgasm.


You ride out her orgasm, humming happily into her as she clenches her delightfully-soft thighs around your head. Once she releases her grip you pull back, licking your lips lasciviously as you stare down at her with predatory glee.

Some small amount of defiance remains in her eyes, lingering pride in her station refusing to allow her to admit defeat after only one orgasm. That's fine. You never intended to stop at one anyways.

"I've wanted you for a long time, you know." You tell her as you pick her up as easily as you'd pick up, say, Tianshi what a weird thought why would you be thinking about your daughter right now.

"Is that right?" She replies, some level of her usual decorum returning to her despite her voice shaking a bit. "Come now, Ariel. You don't have to lie. You told me you only sleep with those you love, after all."

"I do love you." You tell her.

"Well, obviously, considering where we are now. I've never known you to be a liar." She rolls her eyes. "I meant in the 'for a long time' context."

You twist around, positioning the two of you so that you're sitting with her in your lap, the two of you facing one another. "I meant that part, though? There's a lot to love in you, Eona."

"Please." She mumbles, her eyes refusing to meet yours.

"I mean it. You're smart, capable, determined, an established businesswoman… not many women can or want to stand up to the church, especially when it's backed by someone like my sister." You tell her as you lean in to nibble one of her ears. "I like that about you."

"What, my stubbornness?" She asks, laughing a little. "Stop! That tickles. Lower, near my clavicle—ah!"

You follow her instructions as she points out her sensitive spots to you. "Yes? Being stubborn isn't always a bad thing… except maybe when it means you pretend you don't want something you clearly want more than anything."

"Funny." She deadpans. "I have my pride, Ariel. I'm older than I look, and I've spent a great deal of time honing my craft — and to be shown up by a woman who only began having sex months ago is more than that pride can bear without serious challenge."

"So… you're scared I'll ruin your winning streak, is that it?"

That ignites a fire in her eyes. "Ruin it? Just because you made me cum once? I haven't even gotten started, Ariel dear. If I tried, this wouldn't even be a contest."

"Sure, sure." You say. "But you're not willing to risk it."

Her eyes narrow angrily. "Fine. But don't regret this when I take your task, devil."


You almost pity Eona. Does she even realize who she's picking a fight with? She did claim she once made dragons beg her for more, but that could have just been an exaggeration… and besides, you now know that you can make a dragon your bitch easily enough. It's hardly impressive.

Your cock kisses her lips, and you make sure not to use your magic to alter it… yet. A good strategist conceals her weapon for just the right moment. Mika taught you that when you were young, though she probably didn't intend for her wisdom to be used in this context. Oh well.

Her wetness is audible as you grab her hips and lower her onto you, and you grin at her cheekily. "What do you expect?" She huffs. "You licked me like a damned dog in heat, it's obvious I'd be soaked."

"Uh-huh." You say as your head pokes into her. Her pale pink inner labia stretch around your member almost hypnotically as you lower her down your shaft, savoring every centimeter of her inner depths. "Goddess, you're tight."

"Of course." She replies, her confidence in her victory building as you feign a brief loss of control. "I may not be a full orc, but I do have muscle in all the right places."

You do have to agree with both that statement and her earlier assessment of her capabilities — once you're in her she's riding you like a pro, using her entire body to accentuate the movements of her love canal. Her hips sway and bounce, and her waist twists from side to side so that her insides coil around you with a purpose.

Really, you doubt some succubi have the sheer level of control over their inner walls as Eona does. If you'd picked this fight with her back when you first met you might have actually been in trouble.

Now, though? You've got enough self-control not to lose yourself to her admittedly expert ministrations, and so you take the opportunity to pick out a few of her weak spots, using what you remember from your tasting of her earlier as a starting point.

Once, twice, three times and more you find the little nooks and crannies of Eona that make her breathe just a little harder, squeal just a little louder. No matter how slight or how great the reaction, you take note of it for what you plan to be the coup de grâce of this little contest.

"Give up yet?" Eona asks you, an eager grin on her lips as she rocks side to side with your cock completely buried in her. She actually seems to be having fun more than anything else — you get the feeling she genuinely hasn't had the chance to go all out in a while.

"Give up?" You ask, reaching around to pin her arms around her back. "We haven't even gotten started."

The two of you fuck one another in earnest from that point forward. Her pussy milks you like no other, her oddly exacting control of the organ allowing her to target your own weaknesses just as you plan on doing to her. You're honestly starting to wonder if she's part slime or something on the inside, a thought that manages to quell some of the rising arousal in you… if only for the moments before you recall your last sexual encounter with a slime.

Fucking Echo.

You do your best to keep things 'fair' for a while, only using your natural abilities instead of augmenting yourself with magic. When you target her G-spot it's due entirely to natural skill and not an augmented penis. Your hips rub against her exposed clitoris when she hilts you, an action that she finds particularly delightful, if her sudden shriek of pleasure is any indication.

The two of you seem to be neck-and-neck for a while… metaphorically and occasionally literally, as the myriad kiss and bite marks on one another's necks can attest. The keyword here, however, is seem — at no point are you ever in danger of losing this little sexual squabble.

The signs of her approaching orgasm make themselves evident in her voice rising in pitch and the throbbing around your member, and you allow her to bring your own climax closer as well. She can feel you swelling in her, a mixture of fear that she'll fail to drive you to it first and anticipation for her possible victory playing across her face at that realization.

When the two of you are nearly there you unleash your weapon, magically molding your cock into a squirming slab of prehensile flesh — a tentacle, modeled after your 'sister's'. For extra oomph you add Eluvi's cock-spines to the mix, making sure they're in just the right position to attack your lover's myriad weakpoints.

Eona shrieks in surprise as the tentacular onslaught begins, her eyes widening in shock and horror. "You… you can—"

"Yep." You wink at her as you grab her and force her down, preventing her attempt to retreat and regain ground. "Ah-ah, Eona. No running away now."

The illusion of control you allowed her evaporates in moments as your tendril rampages within her, and you watch in pride and fascination as little bulges show up on her stomach from time to time as you plumb her depths in a way she never expected.

She climaxes in short order, but you don't give her the slightest reprieve. Your assault on her most sensitive areas intensify, if anything, and you're pretty sure that her customers both inside and outside of the brothel can hear her from wild cries of ecstacy.

Cumming with a tentacle cock is a bit strange, as you can feel the seed travel up the entire thing with surprising clarity. It's not unpleasant, however, and in the midst of a climax it only adds to the pleasure you feel as you bathe Eona's insides with opiate-laced ejaculate. Her eyes dilate as the drug takes effect, and with one final quiver she collapses into your arms and lies across your breasts as you fill her to the brim and beyond.


It takes her a minute to recover, after which she glares at you weakly.

"You cheated." She manages to mutter. "Cheater."

"Sounds like the words of a sore loser to me." You reply, leaning forward to give her a long, loving kiss. She returns it, sighing when you break it.

"Damn it. You absolute monster." Her glare returns. "What are you, the long-lost twin of Asmodeus herself?"

"Er…" You blush, scratching the back of your neck sheepishly. "Apparently I look like her, so… kind of? We're sisters, technically."

She just stares at you for a moment, then chooses not to comment. "Hmph. Well, you've won. What horrible price will you exact from me, devil?"

"Hmm…." You pretend to think reaching down to brush your fingers over her pubic area. "For starters, I think you need to be marked so everyone knows you're mine."

"…fine."

A flash of light sees your Crest ignite and sear itself painlessly into her flesh. "You know what I just realized?" You ask.

She eyes you warily as your fingers snake up her chest and lovingly stroke her throat. "Your pretty little dress hides that mark pretty well. I think you need one here, too."

Another flash of light sees another Crest forming. This one is the same color as the other, but it resembles nothing so much as a choker tattooed in her flesh, with he dead center of it bearing your signature heart-enfolded-in-wings emblem.

"There. Don't you look lovely?" You bend down for another kiss, one which she once more happily accepts despite her attempt to pretend otherwise. "I love you, Eona."

She's silent for a while before finally working up the nerve to answer. "I rather think I love you too. It's very irksome for a woman in my profession, you know. I'm not going to give up my job, and I'm not planning on bearing children quite yet."

"Oh! Here, let me…" You place a hand over her womb and cast Plan Better, ensuring you won't have yet another daughter after tonight's events.

"Thank you." She replies. "But I must reiterate, Ariel. I won't give up the Menagerie, and I still plan on taking customers of my own. If that is unacceptable to you…"

She leaves it hanging, but you get the idea. Are you willing to allow Eona to continue her life as she has? If not, it may be better to continue as friends from here on… though she'll keep the Crests. You did win, after all.


"That's fine." You reply. "We'll wait. Maybe in the future, when you're ready to pass on the torch… well, we'll get to that when it happens. Until then I'll make sure you can't help but think of me every moment of every day."

A tension you barely realized she had seems to fade from Eona, and she gives you the warmest smile you think you've ever seen from her. "Thank you, Ariel."

She initiates the kiss this time, and soon you find yourself pushed onto your back as she drifts down your body. "Now hold still. I'll be damned if I let you finish things on your terms like that."

Her mouth opens wide and she goes to work swallowing your tentacled cock…

--

Once you've been thoroughly worshipped and lavished with affection, the two of you mingle together on the pillows. "Honestly, I should thank you. With the way you made me scream I imagine I can expect some extra business for the next few days. Who do I blame it on, I wonder? They'll pull most of the customers for a while…"

"Why not just admit it was me?"

Her glare appears once more. "Because you don't work for me and therefore don't earn me money. Unless you intend on changing that…"

"You know my rule."

"Bah."

She huffs and snuggles against your side and you think back to earlier. "Were you worried I'd say no? About accepting you doing your job still, I mean."

She's silent for a while, and her voice is somber when she answers. "You are not the first woman to court me Ariel. Far from it. You aren't even the first to get so far, though you are the first to beat me at my own game. My prior suitors could not accept me continuing my work — an understandable limitation, but not one I could bear."

"Ah. So you were worried…"

"That you would feel the same, yes. I'm aware of your harem, Ariel, but I'm also aware some monsters don't like sharing."

"Mm… well, I don't know that I'd share just anyone. But you've been doing this for a while, and I'm not going to steal that from you. It's part of who you are, and part of why I love you."

"Hmph. You're certain you won't work for me? There are many women who'd pay me a pretty penny just to hear that silver tongue of yours at work."

"No." You laugh.

"Damnation." She hisses, once more burying her face against you as you deny her what would probably be the crown jewel of the Menagerie.

(Temptation is now Rank 8!)


You spend a good while cuddling with your newest lover before realizing you've forgotten something. "Oh!"

Eona, who appears to have been drifting off, looks at you accusingly as you startle her out of that state.

"Don't glare at me, you. Here, give me your hand." You don't actually wait for her to offer it, instead taking it in your own and slipping a new ring onto its slender fourth finger. "There."

She stares at the ring, surprised, before bringing it up to her face for a closer inspection. "Is that… my, it is. A Pridesire's Band? I'd heard rumors someone had one commissioned, but I didn't expect it was you. Though, in retrospect, I probably should have." Eona finishes wryly.

"It wasn't technically me. My fiancées had it done as a surprise gift."

"Ah. Yes, the ruby there — the scalekin?" She looks up at you and you nod in reply. "Of course. They tend to adore the gems and metals that most match their scale color. Something to keep in mind should you ever need a favor from one."

"I'll try and remember it next time I run across one of them." You reply, and she snorts.

"I don't doubt you will, right after you finish fucking whoever she ends up being."

"I'm not that bad." You sniff.

"You are absolutely incorrigible, if my reckoning of your current number of partners is correct. You've been at this, what, a few months? I wouldn't be surprised if the church sends a few inquisitors just to keep you from snatching up all the eligible bachelorettes in the Middlelands."

You laugh, and she does too, but part of you think's she's not entirely joking.

--

As much fun as lounging around with arguably the best lover in the city sounds, both you and she have other things to do. Well, she does. You have to find something to do yourself.

You part with a kiss and a promise to visit more, and set off to spend your Afternoon…


You decide to head home, mostly because you can't resist the urge to kiss the cheeks of every single one of your children you can get your hands on before the day is done. Your flight back is light and swift thanks to this thought, until…

…is that a caravan? A pretty wealthy one, if you're any judge — it looks like they literally used gold to line some of the lead wagon. There's an insignia you only vaguely sort of recognize on it, but before you can put too much though into the matter you notice something else.

They're surrounded by what appear to be your standard band of ruffians and thugs — your sister has bemoaned the fact that they've been getting bolder of late, and this appears to be one of the consequences. You're not that far from the city.

You're divebombing the thugs before you even realize it, angelic instinct kicking in as if you never Fell. It's not much of a fight, really — which is nice in it's own way, because you get to practice some riskier maneuvers that you might otherwise not have had the leeway to attempt.

Once the bandits are taken care of, subdued, and gift-wrapped by the caravanners for the guard, you prepare to take off so that your daughters can be kissed into submission… only to be stopped by a voice that's strangely familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.

"Ah, mademoiselle! Stop a moment, s'il vous plaît!" You turn towards the owner of the high-pitched lilting voice and freeze. The familiar-unfamiliarity extends to this young woman's appearance as well as her voice — something about her features tickles a large part of your mind, but the bright pink coloring of her hair and eyes throws off your ability to really place her appearance.

She's an elegant woman, and you can tell she's gone to great pains to see to that. Every fiber of her clothing, every bit of jewelry, every trace of cosmetics on her body has been carefully selected to make an already attractive young lady absolutely breathtaking… though if you're not mistaken, she's just barely old enough to actually bear that moniker instead of 'teenager.' It almost feels like looking at one of your eldest if they'd just discovered fashion.

"Thank you." She smiles as you stop, giving you an elegant curtsy. "May I know your name, my hero?"

"I… Ariel." You reply, a bit taken aback by the intensity in her gaze. She's absolutely enamored with you, if you're not mistaken. For some reason you could swear someone else looks at you just like she does, but your mind refuses to tell you who.

"Ariel! A lovely name for a lovely woman. I am Stella, a businesswoman by trade." She offers her hand to you and you take it, giving her a light handshake. "Now that introductions are out of the way, I think gratitude is in order."

She claps her hands and several of her fellow caravanners — her subordinates, you realize — rush to grab a selection of items which they present before you.

"I regret that I do not have a massive selection of goods at the moment." Stella sighs. "This was meant to be little more than a taste, a test of the local markets… but I hope something catches your eye regardless, mademoiselle Ariel."

The items laid before you don't look to have any magic or practical qualities — they're all fashion-related, which, along with Stella's general appearance and bearing, you surmise to be the young woman's primary focus.

The first item is a pair of silver earrings. "Elfin in design, though they fit our ears just as well." She laughs lightly, and you get the feeling you're missing the context for some joke. "Guaranteed to catch the eye of that special someone, whether worn or as a gift."

The second item is folded at first, though the caravanner holding it unfolds it when your gaze reaches it. It's a cute little white dress that looks like it exposes the arms, shoulders, a large portion of the back, and everything below the knees. "Very popular among the younger noblewomen of my home." Stella explains. "Inspired more out of backlash against the more conservative wear their mothers favor, I think, but it is cute nonetheless, non?"

The final item is in a bottle, and Stella herself holds it up to you with her delicate hands. "Ah, this is my favorite. Lys rose, a perfume made of lilies local to a particular glade. Charming, sensual, calming… it is a scent for every occasion, I assure you."

You just barely realize that you weren't given a chance to protest, even if you'd wanted to. Well, it's not like it can hurt — free is free, and even if you don't use these one of your family is bound to like your chosen reward instead.


"… I'll take the dress, I suppose." You say after a long moment's consideration. "But really, a reward isn't—"

"Non, non. I will not hear it." She shakes her head as her servant… attendant… whatever the other woman is packages the item for you. "My mothers would throw me from the roof of our mansion if I were to do any less."

"Well I'd hate to have to fly in and save you from that too." You joke, but the sly smile she gives you makes you feel like she'd rather like that outcome.

"A pity I did not think of that sooner, or I could have monopolized more of your time. C'est la vie!" She lifts the back of her hand to her forehead in mock despair as her attendants prepare to leave. "I will have to make due with the brief pleasure of your company, I suppose. Unless you happen to have need of my goods in the future?" She gives you a wink as she makes her way back up her caravan. "If the need for fashion strikes you, ask after Stella Delaroux. I expect I shall be in town a while longer."

She parts before the shock can completely register on your face, fortunately. The odd familiarity from before finally makes sense — you're pretty sure you just spoke with a member of Liane's family. Her sister, perhaps, judging by her age… and what you now realize is a rather striking resemblance to Zaphkiel and Maribelle.

(Your Dagger skill is now Rank 8!)


"That's Stella, yeah." Liane says as you describe your encounter. "She was always pretty fashion-savvy. Did you knock her up already, or…?"

"Wh… no!" You reply, affronted. "I'm not that bad!"

"Sure. Who did you have sex with while you were out, then?"

"Eona."

She gives you a look, so you feel the need to defend yourself. "I didn't knock her up. We used Plan Better."

"Really? I didn't think you had the self-control." She comments as she examines the dress her sister gave you. "Oh, this is cute. Not really my style, and the chest is too small even if it were."

You strategically neglect to mention that you only cast Plan Better because Eona asked you too. "If it's too small for you it'll be too small for Zaphi and Mary."

"I doubt we could get Zaphi to trade in her robes for anything at this point anyways." She replies dryly, shooting you a look you don't recognize this time. "Anyways, I should probably visit Stella if she's around. We didn't ever talk much, but it's not like I don't like her. Honestly, I think she'll be over the moon to find out she's an aunt."

"Do you want me along for that?" You ask, and she eyes you warily.

"Are you going to try to seduce my sister if I give you half a chance to do so?"

"…maybe." You admit. "Actually, does it count if she already kind of likes me?"

Her judging stare is all the answer you need.

--

You show the dress to your various family members, but it either doesn't fit some (you only asked Asteria out of fairness, and she seemed more amused at that than anything) or they aren't interested… until you move onto the younger girls.

You've never seen Kira's red eyes light up like this for… anything, really. She's usually curled up beside Eluvi or Kali, her red wings tucked away as she watches the homestead go about its business. You were starting to worry that she's not getting any stimulation in her life, actually.

"You're a little small for it right now." You tell her as you hold the dress up to her. "But going by you mother and I's body type… I think it should fit you pretty well."

Her wings flutter… nay, practically buzz excitedly. "Do you think I'll be big enough soon, mama?"

You laugh and rub her head affectionately. "Probably. In the worst case we can have it adjusted. I'm supposed to see the lady who gave it to me soon, would you like me to ask her for something that fits you now?"

She nods so fast you're scared that she's going to rattle her brain or something. "Alright, first we'll have to take your measurements… maybe adjust them up a bit, since you all grow so fast…"

--

The sun has long since passed its zenith by the time you've gotten Kira measured and calmed down, and you have enough Evening to get some last minute work in. What do you do?


You decide to practice your magic for a while. The library is rather stuffy at the moment, what with Liane giving you looks for not denying you might absolutely for sure fuck her sister, so you opt to take one of the copied spellbooks outside instead of messing with it under her stony gaze.

Luna sees you and insists that you have to watch her tend her garden, so you pull a seat up next to her as she happily goes about watering her plants, telling them she loves them, and singing to them in a random order that she has determined will optimize their growth.

"Mama, do you like roses?" She asks.

"Yes?" You say, distracted. "They're lovely flowers."

"Oh. I don't have any roses." She says disappointedly.

"You don't have to have roses, sweetie. I'm sure whatever you're growing is lovely all on its own."

She huffs. "But you like roses and I don't have any."

"That's… it's not that big a deal, Luna."

"Yes it is!"

The little black-haired menace argues with you about how her not having roses is actually a super huge deal, and the noise inevitably attracts her mother, who lays her head in your lap as you continue to argue with the child while also trying to learn magic.

"Tell her she's being ridiculous, Fenri." You say finally, down looking at the puppy. She wags her tail at the mention of her name, but looks up at you confusedly.

"Is she?"

"Yes!" You sigh. Maybe asking Fenri for help here wasn't the brightest idea. You love her, but she's pretty flippant about most things that aren't hunting, you, or her kids. You doubt she even paid attention to the argument itself so much as the fact that there was one.

"Luna." You say, grasping both sides of the little Fallen's face. "My muffin. My little girl. You don't need to have roses in the garden. I will like it no matter what because it's your garden. Okay?"

"…okay." She puffs out her cheeks, a habit you're starting to realize all your daughters share. That logically means it comes from you, but you're totally calm and collected all the time so that means it's probably something that got mixed in from another angel. Probably Kyna, if you had to guess.

"Good girl. Gimme kiss." You point to your cheek, and she puckers her lips and plants a kiss there. "Now, where was I? Right, you move your arm like this to invoke…"

A flash of bright purple light flies from your arm and wraps tightly around a fencepost, much to your shock. "That's not — what the hell?"

Glancing back at your spellbook, you realize you've been looking at the wrong page for a while now in your distraction — My Mistress's Collar is a bit more… outright devilish than you usually are comfortable with, but if it's consensual it might not be so bad.


You carefully tuck the spellbook away and take the opportunity to lecture your girls on why you should absolutely pay attention when learning new magic. Luckily no-one calls you out on how it's a lesson brought about by your own very recent mistakes, and you are able to wind down the night without (further) incident.

Typically, the daughters you personally birthed sleep with you, but you can swap things around for the night. Would you like to spend the night with another part of your family?


Your usual trio are passed to their sire for the night, an event the pterosaur delights in as she wriggles all over her hoard to nuzzle against all six of your shared children.

You poke your head into Sybil's room, gesturing for both of its occupants to join you. They're no less eager to do so than Eluvi was to take her children in for the night, and soon you're lying in bed with Sera and Sybil on either side of you. They hold hands across your belly, which you find indescribably adorable.

You actually notice that Sera has her other arm tucked against her torso, holding…

"Is that the doll I got you?" You ask her, recognizing the little figure after a moment.

Sera smiles and nods, bringing the doll up to her cheek. "Aria. I don't carry her around with me during the day anymore because I don't want the younger girls to damage her, but I still like to sleep with her."

"You named her—?"

"After you. Yes."

You don't know what to say to that, so you just reach up with a hand to caress her head instead. "You've really grown up, you know that?"

"Mother says so too."

"Because it is true." Sybil's warm voice comes from your other side, and you feel her hand tighten against Sera's own across your midsection.

"Mmmnn." Sera doesn't answer right away, instead rubbing her head against your hand like a cat. "I have great teachers."

The three of you lie there for a while, before suddenly Sera asks another question. "Mommy?"

Sybil, who has been resting on your shoulder for a while now, lifts her head in concern at the more childish term and tone. "What is it, sweetie?"

"Do you have any family? Like Aunt Fi or Aunt Liane?"

"Oh." You can practically feel Sybil deflate back against your shoulder as she considers the question.

"Well, yes and no." She says tentatively. "If you specifically want to know your blood relatives, I am afraid I must disappoint you. I never knew them."

"You're an orphan?" You ask, realizing you never thought to inquire about her past yourself.

"Yes." She says simply. There's not shame in her voice, though there is a bit of… hesitation. As if she's afraid she really will disappoint her daughter with the news. "I was adopted by the Senior Sister of my hometown's chapel. Sister Charity was… is her name."

"So… she's my grandmother?" Seraphiel asks after a moment, and you feel Sybil's body ease a bit as some tension leaves her.

"Yes, dear. She is, for all intents and purposes, your grandmother… though I must admit I worry at her reaction to my choices."

Right. You've basically ruined any chance she had of being a normal Priestess, and now you find out you may be the reason she basically gets disowned by her mother figure. "I'm sorry." You tell her, and to your surprise a sudden edge enters her voice in response.

"Stop that. I have listened to you apologize to half of your lovers now for things beyond your control. I did not enter a relationship with you without knowing the consequences, Ariel, and I absolutely do not regret them."

"…" You say nothing, fearing another sorry will earn you more ire.

"You may apologize for your faux pas." She says, and you do so with a little laugh. Seraphiel squeezes closer to you, making you feel a little warm, but you allow it. Truthfully, you like when Sera gets affectionate with you — she's quite the cuddlebug when she wants to be.

"Could you tell me about her?" Sera asks her mother, and Sybil smiles brightly.

"Well, she is—"

The two of you listen to Sybil list the myriad good qualities of her mother before sleep eventually overwhelms the lot of you, and you drift into a dream of roses and matronly priestesses…


You awake to a weight on top of you — it turns out Seraphiel's cuddly tendencies have driven her to basically treat you as a mattress. As adorable as that is, she's not a toddler anymore and it's remarkably uncomfortable to have a full-grown woman atop you even if it is incredibly arousing because she's so soft and smells really nice sort of like her mom but a bit sharper.

For a moment you think that Sybil has already left the room, but when you look around you realize that she in fact snuck out to find someone else — Maribelle, who is currently putting your current predicament to canvas.

"It's so sweet!" Sybil whispers to you as you glare at her for the betrayal. Later, when Mary shows you the finished product, you have to admit that Sybil is right. Sera looks positively blissful atop you… though it looks like Mary had to take a few liberties with your own expression.

Once you're free of your daughter's burdensome affection, you have a Morning to do with as you see fit.


"Mama! Fly!" Your morning is immediately ruined and your blood runs cold as you hear the unmistakably chipper voice of your toddler slime-daughter. Looking up, you see that through some unholy means she somehow got atop the roof.

Got, as in past tense, as in she's currently plummeting towards the ground, arms outstretched, as happy as any child has been or ever shall be. Terror seizes you and you erupt into motion, flying up to catch the little crossbreed before she hits the ground.

Fortunately you snatch her into a full-body hug, landing in a ball of panicked mess as the child stares up at you with betrayal in her slimy eyes. "No, mama. I fly, not you fly."

"You…" Choking off your words of reprimand and reminding yourself that Signali is still basically a baby, you take a moment to calm yourself. Several moments, actually, but who's counting?

"Echo!" You shout once you're collected, and after a minute the slime-woman slithers into sight.

"Ariel? Oh! Hello, Signali! Where have you been? I've been looking everywhere!"

"Mommy!" The child in your arms wriggles towards her mother, but you keep a hold on her, much to Signali's frustration.

"She was on the roof." You tell Echo as the toddler grunts and continues to try to squirm free, and her eyes widen in surprise.

"How did she get up there?" Echo asks, more curious than concerned. "She cannot fly yet, can she?"

"If she can then she's intentionally choosing not to when she flings herself from things. Like the roof."

"Ah." Echo frowns. "I see."

--

"You cannot keep jumping off of things, Signali." You tell a pouting slime girl. Like her sisters, she likes to puff out her cheeks when she's upset. Unlike her sisters, her elastic body allows her to puff them out to comical proportions.

"I'm flying."

"Falling is not flying."

"You falling."

"She is techically somewhat correct, if we were to take your status as a Fallen — sorry."

You turn your withering glare away from Echo, making sure to soften it when it reaches your daughter. "I mean it, Signali. No more jumping off of things. It scares me when you do that."

"Not scary." She refutes.

"It's very scary. If you get hurt I'll be very sad."

"Won't get hurt."

"You don't know that."

"Yes I do."

"No, you don't."

"Yes—"

--

"She is very stubborn, isn't she?" Echo asks you as you take a break from the circular argument with your child.

"Why are so many of my kids so… argumentative?" You lament, thinking back to your similar conflict with Luna yesterday.

"Children often inherent traits from their parents." Echo replies cheerfully, as if she were relaying any other fun fact. "Though on occasion such behaviors skip generations."

You can't help but laugh a little at that. "What, so my Mother might be just as argumentative? Actually, now that I think back…" She was pretty insistent you take Kyna. Sure, she was right about it being good for you, but still.

"Wait, how do I know it's not something she gets from you?"

"I am most agreeable." She replies. "And the commonality of the behavior amongst your children suggests that you are, if not its source, then at least its vector."

"Right." You sigh, unable to argue with her logic. "Well, any ideas? She's your kid too."

"I would simply allow her to do as she pleases." She shrugs, then hastily corrects herself. "On a lesser scale. She clearly enjoys this game of hers. Wouldn't it be better to take control of it ourselves, instead of denying it to her? We at least know she's in safe hands instead of finding new, dangerous heights to fling herself from."

"I… I mean, I guess. I just can't get used to the idea of letting her harm herself like that." You admit, wincing at the mental image of a crying slime-child.

"She lives in an area with no less than three beings capable of Greater Divine magic. Any pain she suffers will be temporary." Echo replies. "And if she really does suffer such consequences on this smaller scale exercise, she will likely cease her attempts."

"And if she doesn't get hurt?"

"Then she is safe in her game and there is no need to worry over the issue any longer."

"…alright." You sigh. "We start small, though."

"Of course." Echo smiles. "It is only wise."

--

As it turns out, you don't actually end up having to allow more than a jump off one of Asteria's taller chairs — Signali literally bounces back from the impact with delight, rushing back up the furniture to repeat the process and showing no interest in anything else.

"Promise mama you'll tell her before you try to jump off anything higher?" You ask the girl, and she nods eagerly.

"Promise!" The brilliant smile the little monster gives you is almost enough to make you forget the sheer terror she put you through earlier. For now, at least, you're content in the knowledge that your horrible shocks are over for the day.

And then Echo pipes up.

"I was considering our earlier discussion on inherited behaviors, and it occurred to me — my brother delighted in a similar game in the lab. Perhaps she inherits her fondness for the activity from him."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA


You suffer severe damage to your psyche at being reminded that you are now technically related to IT, but recover enough to engage in Afternoon shenanigans.


You've had a hard morning, and it has brought to mind a simple fact. You forgot to kiss every daughterly cheek you could yesterday. This must be rectified as soon as possible.

"Tianshi, could you get your sisters together for me?" You ask your nearest offspring, and she eyes you curiously.

"Why?"

"Because I want to give everyone kisses." You answer truthfully. Your daughters love getting kisses, so it's not like telling the truth is going to prevent that somehow. "Just get them all in the yard, please."

When you attend the yard yourself, you find a conspicuous lack of daughters, save for a lonesome Adalinda who looks at you guiltily. "Um, Tia says you have to find us all. She said we'd get kisses if we played hide and seek with you." She tears up a little. "Do I still get kisses if I didn't hide?"

You fool. You oaf. You absolute idiot. You forgot who you were dealing with — Tianshi, the most devious of daughters. She has taken your promised kisses and twisted them to turn your own children against you.

This will not stand. Each and every daughter must be kissed.

Must. Be. Kissed.

Beginning with poor little Adalinda, who you lavish with kisses. The tears that threatened to spill down her cheeks vanish, and you are left to ponder your next action.

The hunt begins. The only question, is how do you go about it?


Realizing a simple truth — Estelle has no patience for shenanigans and/or chicanery — you march into the library and find her not even making a token effort to hide from you.

The toddler perks up as she sees you enter, offering her cheek for you to peck. You do so, picking her up and giving her a few more just for good measure, delighting in the childish giggles she blesses you with in response.

"Oh, Estelle. You're so cute, and I can't find Mary and Zaphi, so I guess I'll just have to give all their kisses to you~"

The taunt works like a charm as both of Liane's other daughters slink out of their hiding places in the library, each looking less than pleased. "You don't have to play dirty like that. We would have come out if you just asked." Zaphi pouts.

Mary doesn't even verbally complain, instead staring at you sullenly until you give her the promised kisses. Honestly, both of them should be more careful with those pouty looks. It really accentuates their lips, and who knows what sort of weird deviant might be tempted by such luscious things.

Once you've had your fill you are left to plot your next move… Fenri cannot be kept from her children. Sic 'em, girl.


You stalk back outside and bring two fingers to your lips, using them to emit a loud, piercing whistle. From within the cottage several crashing noises are heard as a very excited lycanthrope rushes to meet your call, busting open the door and screeching to stop by your side, tail wagging.

"Puppy. Our daughters hide. Bring them to me."

She's off like a werebat out of the dungeon, sniffing the ground only briefly before charging off behind the cottage, where Asteria keeps the firewood.

"Ah! Mommy, no!"

"Wait, puppy, not me too!"

Fenri returns to you with both of your shared children… and Soniel, who looks uncharacteristically embarrassed. "…didn't think you'd cheat and sic puppy on us."

Luna and Zuri take their kisses easily, but Soniel does this weird pseudo-struggle where she turns her lips towards you to try and scare you off. Well, it's not going to work, because you're comfortable kissing really close to her lips because that's not weird and you aren't weird either! Take that!

Who falls to your genius tactics next? The others can wait. Tianshi thinks she is your better. She must be reminded otherwise.


The others are mostly on the roof. You're sure of it. The only exception would be the one who has the most to gain from you falling for that bait.

Tianshi. Doubtless she'll claim that because you caught her last she somehow won this little game that wasn't supposed to be a game but that she made a game and now she's in trouble for that, damn it. Unfortunately for her, she's forgotten the cardinal sin — pride.

You move as though about to fly to the roof, listening with every fiber of your being, and you hear it — a smug exhalation of air, a sound of pure satisfaction.

"AHA!" You yell, darting after the noise. A startled "eep!" comes from the tree she's hiding behind and you watch as she dashes away, desperate to shake you before you can catch her.

"This isn't supposed to be a game of tag, you brat!" Wait, this isn't supposed to be a game at all.

She risks turning to stick her tongue out at you — a grievous error, because she immediately stumbles over her feet, allowing you to pounce her. She struggles beneath you, fighting with all her might… but at the end of the day, she was never really a match for you.

Claim your victory.


You have to give Tianshi credit — she fights like a cornered rat even when she knows she's doomed. You feel an odd sense of pride at that, but not enough to spare her the punishment she has brought upon herself.

"Hold still, you absolute brat!" You hiss as she shakes her head from side to side, defiantly denying you an easy target. You can't quite get her to stop moving her head since your hands are currently occupied holding down her hands, so you're just going to have to risk it.

Timing your dive, you aim, descend, and…

A fleeting, almost indescribable softness, just a little wet… for a brief moment, you feel like everything has perfectly aligned in the world, like you've taken a step closer to some nebulous goal you didn't know existed, before — oh no. You immediately jerk back, realizing what just happened, and look down to see a very flushed-looking Tianshi staring with unfocused eyes into the sky above.

"T-Tia?" You manage to stutter, trying to combat the manic fluttering-butterfly feeling currently surging throughout your entire body. "Sweetheart? Are you okay?"

"Huh?" She blinks, then her eyes focus on you. "Am I — oh!" Her face turns an even darker shade of red. "I'm fine! C-could you let me up?"

You oblige, getting off of her and offering her a hand up, which she takes shyly. "Um, the other girls are on the roof. I made them move when you were in the library."

"Right." You say, seizing upon the chance to not think about what just happened. "Well, I need to go get them too…"

"Y-yeah." Tia says, waving off towards the cottage. "Um, good luck."

You fly off towards the cottage roof, very determined to do it again not do it again does Ava kiss like her sister does Meimei taste like her cooking watch out for that tree branch —ow!

--

Tianshi

You can't believe that entire plan worked.


"Ariel?"

Ju stares at you questioningly in response to you staring at her. Or more specifically, at her lips.

The last of your spawn have all been thoroughly kissed, but you couldn't help but feel distracted during their punishment. The sensation of Tianshi's lips on your own lingers still, and so now you're examining her mother for any sort of hint as to why that might be.

"…does Tia wear lipstick?" You ask after a moment.

"…what?" Ju blinks at you, her lips twisting into a frown. You study the way they move, their curvature, their color. Nothing seems particularly off, but perhaps it would be wiser to check firsthand.

"I don't believe sh—mmM!"

Hmm… no, there's nothing odd about the way her lips feel or taste, either. The monk melts into your kiss like a virgin beneath a succubus, which inspires you to indulge in her lips a while longer.

While pleasant, the experience isn't really the same as it was with your fifth daughter. That was almost… revelatory. Like you'd found a piece to a puzzle you'd been unaware existed. As your sister is fond of saying, you will need more information to come to a solid conclusion.

Kissing your other daughters would be wonderful very bad, so you instead decide to assaul… express your affection for everyone in your household who isn't a blood relative of yours.

It'll just be a few kisses, then you'll stop. No further than that.

--

Were there any priestly scholars to witness the carnage left in your wake, they'd have assumed that one of the daughters of Asmodeus herself had visited her dark wiles upon the women of your home.

In the library, poor Liane lies limp on the floor with a book left open beside her, her eyes staring at the ceiling, unfocused. She was first, and woefully unprepared for your surprise attack. Her daughter studiously sketches the witch's prone form for posterity's sake.

Asteria retreated to her room for fear of her daughters witnessing her fall to your sensual onslaughts and thinking less of her in the process. Later, as her children grow older, they'll realize why their mother kept bumping into things the rest of the day.

A tragic vision awaits those who step upon the dojo's floor — Merin and Ulfhild, daughter and mother, holding one another fiercely as if to shield their blood from the depredations of a ravenous monster… to no avail, as their weak moans and bodies testify.

Sera cradles her defiled divine mother in her lap, the priestess muttering apologies to her Goddess over and over for failing to keep you in check.

Evara fought a fight worthy of a woman with centuries of experience under her belt… but at the end of the day, no mortal can hope to stand against the monster you have become. Soniel is left to tend to her mother as an unintentional reminder to your mischievous daughter of what happens to those who push you too far.

Ju realized her fortune in escaping you at first, but fortune only gets her so far. When you return, you carry with you implements to bind her physically — and therefore mentally. She never stood a chance.

They say dragons fight fiercer than ever when near their hoards, but you know Eluvi's weaknesses like the back of your hand. She is left atop her pile of trinkets a broken lizard.

Your puppy is loyal and accepts your lusts as easily as ever, basking in the scent of your connection even after you leave her.

Ilyen is left with weak legs, and her daughter will be fulfilling her role as maid for the next few hours.

Echo learns for the first time what it's like to truly be taken by you, the slime being literally left a puddle when you're done with her.

Somewhere tight and cramped a halfling hides, shivering in fear at the knowledge that you let her go simply so she would hear the others fall before her. Her breath comes harder and faster as the sound of devil footsteps draws closer to her hiding place…

(Temptation is now Rank 9!)

(QM Note: Ariel is aware enough that lewdness is kept out of sight of any of the children too young for that sort of thing. It's intentionally ambiguous whether there was just some really sensual kissing going on or something more.)


It takes a little persuading to get Fi to agree to being within fifty feet of you so you can exercise together, but she relents without too much effort on your part. You're just too hard to stay mad at and you know it.

"You tallfolk and your long legs." Fi huffs as you stretch and touch your toes. "I don't know how you make it all the way to the floor like that."

Vati, as if to contrast the point, wiggles her fingers ineffectually as she tries to force herself further down. The girl is almost as tall as Fi already, and you know that she'll soon exceed her — though she'll likely end up somewhere between the two of you instead of ever being the height of a full-blooded 'tallfolk.'

You laugh and reach out to correct a few issues with Vati's posture as Fi moves to a different stretch, one where she crosses both legs behind her head. "Did Ju teach you that one?"

"Nah, my sisters and I used to compete to see who could contort the best." She grins. "I always won. Not that it mattered any. We didn't exactly have prizes."

Vati manages to squeeze out a few more centimeters towards her toes, but still comes up short of the mark. Huffing, she switches with you to a sitting position as you begin going through other pre-exercise stretches.

"It's alright, Vati." Fi says, snapping out of her halfling-pretzel form and moving to assist her daughter. "It takes a little practice. Gotta loosen the muscles, get used to the effort."

"But you could do it when you were my age." Vati mutters bitterly.

"Nah. I was still in swaddling when I was your age." Fi grins then laughs as Vati bends her head backwards to glare at her.

"You know what I mean!"

"Yeah I do. Still…" Fi trails off before picking the conversation back up. "I needed to be flexible to do some stuff I'm not proud of. Stealing, before you get any ideas." Now it's Fi's turn to glare at you.

"Oh." Vati looks down, chastened. "Sorry, mom."

"Pfft." Fi, waves her hand dismissively. "Don't be. It's not a crime to backtalk your mother a little, or I'd still be in prison to this day."

Despite Fi's words, Vati remains gloomy for the rest of stretches, and even looks somber as you prepare the weights Merin picked up a while back for the homestead to use.

Fi goes to grab a small set of weights for herself, but you instead grab her and place her atop your bar. "You can't be serious." She says, staring down at you as you position yourself.

"I am. You add another, what? Forty pounds? A bit less?"

The halfling flushes furiously as you say that, all but confirming the accuracy of your assessment. "So you're perfect then. Now hold still, it throws off the balance if you move too much."

Fi grits her teeth as you go about your exercise, though you notice that aside from a nice little bonus (watching her ass as you work out) your act has its intended effect — Vati's somber behavior vanishes as she watches you more-or-less flirt with her mother, a little smile playing at her lips as she goes about the weight-free exercises you assigned to her.

"Mom?" Vati asks after a few sets, and both you and Fi answer in unison.

"Yeah?" "Yes, sweetie?"

"What do you like about each other?"

You pause mid-lift, holding Fi in the air for a ponderous moment before you set her and the weight down. Fi, for her part, is red-faced for an entirely different reason now, clearly embarrassed at having to spell out her fondness for you.

"Do you want to go first, or…?"

She glares at you, making you laugh. "Me first, then."


"Let's see…" You lift a hand and begin counting off on your fingers. "I love how dedicated she is to her craft even though she sometimes is ashamed of how she learned it, I love how she pretends not to want things but is really transparent about actually wanting them, I love how she's rough but sweet on the inside, I love how she's absolutely dedicated to being the best mom she can be to you, I love how she can bounce back from anything…"

"Okay, fuck! Stop!" Fi shrills, clapping her hands over Vati's ears. You clamp your mouth shut, and after a moment Fi releases her grip on Vati.

"…and also I love that she accepted me for what I am. I know it may not seem like it growing up the way you did, but not a lot of people would have done that."

"I mean, it's not like you were throwing hellfire around and cackling about making us all your slaves or anything." Fi mutters embarrassedly. You can't help but notice a distinct similarity in her hunched posture and tone to the way Vati was before when she was muttering as well.

"Your turn." You smile cheerfully.

Her all-too-frequent glare returns, but beneath both your and Vati's gazes she has no choice but to acquiesce.

"…I love how even though you lost everything you ever had you still found a way to power through." She admits after a long moment. "That… I mean, seriously? That's something that breaks most people. It probably would have broken me. I dunno, it just… I think it speaks to who you are deep inside. You might be a devil, but you're not a devil-devil. You know what I mean."

Now it's your turn to blush furiously and turn away, and for some reason your eyes feel kind of hot too. Must be a coincidence. Allergies, maybe. Stupid trees.

Vati looks between the two of you. "Aren't you getting married?" She asks after a moment, clearly unimpressed with your new-lover-esque behavior. "You're acting like Zaphi when she—"

Her eye catches something in the distance and she coughs. "Er, nevermind."

"We don't talk about it a lot, you brat." Fi reaches over and furiously ruffles Vati's hair, to the girl's very vocal protests. "We're just that in-sync. No words necessary between us and all that."

"Exactly." You comment as you reach over to tickle the already-assailed Fallen child. Sometimes you feel that half the benefit of having children is to harmlessly bully them like this.

"You said backtalk wasn't a crime!" Vati hisses as you allow her to temporarily escape your twinned assault.

"I'm not a guardswoman." Fi shrugs. "What is and isn't a crime doesn't really matter to me, does it?"

"And I'm a devil, so…"

Vati's eyes go wide as you both close in on her again and she shrieks, taking flight in a futile attempt to flee the two of you.

It's a rather novel experience, working beside Fi to tease someone else instead of just teasing her. She's not half bad at it, and it occurs to you that she probably had plenty of practice with seven sisters.

All that is to say, poor Vati never had a chance.

(Athletics is now Rank 6!)


Your day winds down peacefully enough, considering the various catastrophes that have befallen it. Between nigh-suicidal slime children and a rampage from an unnamed devil, your homestead has been through a lot.

How do you spend the night?


Eluvi refuses to release your scalekin children back to your care, so they spend the night atop their sire's hoard once more. You have to admit the two trios make for an adorable image as you close the door to the room — Ivule and Akael sprawl out so that they're each atop the other somehow, Kira is nestled in the center of a curled-up Kaliyah, and Adalinda clings to Remi as if her very life depends on her older sister.

Oddly, you also notice a few extra trinkets in the pile that weren't there before tonight. Where'd Eluvi get those?

When you return to your room, you're surprised to find that each and every one of your eldest daughters has snuck into your bed.

"And what's this?" You ask, trying to keep from laughing.

"You slept with Sera last night."

Your face twitches. Whoever decided "sleep with" should be synonymous with sex is an absolute bitch. Now you can't stop thinking about naked Sera, which is obviously terrible. Not Sera herself, you're pretty sure she's absolutely ravishing beneath the… incest is bad, Ariel.

So bad.

"I slept in the bed with her and her mother, yes."

"It's not fair." Tianshi says.

"You don't get to start today, little miss." You reply to her. "Don't think I won't get you back for that little trick you pulled."

She puffs her chest out. "Oh yeah? I'd like—"

Before she can tell you exactly what it is she'd like both Meimei and Ava have her subdued. Zaphi glares back at her for a moment before clearing her throat and looking back to you. "Ahem. Tianshi is right. We'd like a chance to sleep with you as well, and we thought it best to take advantage of the opportunity created by our sisters' absence."

"Take advantage of the… wait." Something clicks as you think back to Eluvi's conspicuous new treasures and her stalwart insistence that she get to keep your shared daughters for another night. "Did… did you bribe my dragonling?"

"We may have worked out a deal, yes." Zaphi replies, unphased that you've discovered her plot.

You kind of have to admire the sheer cheek of it all. "Alright, fine. But you're going to have to squeeze in together, you're not as little as you used to be."

Their response is immediate. There's an immediate scuffle for positions, and more than a few frenzied whispers as they make promises and trades in order to attain their desired spot.

"Honestly, you lot." You sigh as you fling yourself into the center of the bed. "You'd think I never spend time with you."

"You don't spend enough time with us." Tia pipes up.

"I spent all afternoon hunting you down." You counter. "And just the other day—"

"Don't, mother." Avariel groans. "She's just riling you up on purpose."

"Not true." Tia grumbles.

"It is so true." Soniel giggles from just beyond her. "I saw what you did, by the way~"

"Shut up."

"Better move over if you don't want me to tell."

Tia grumbles some more and shifts so Soni can monopolize your side. "Mama, do you love me?"

"Of course I love you." You reply, bemused. She hums happily and hugs your arm tightly.

"Good. I love you too. Do you love everyone else?"

"Of course." You answer again, still wondering what sort of game she's playing.

"Good. Girls?"

A chorus of 'I love you' sounds from the rest, and you can't help but notice a distinctive absence.

"… I wonder how your sister is doing." You say sadly, thinking of Lia.

"Probably well." Maribelle replies. "She's… persistent."

"Stubborn." Meimei corrects.

"She's probably thinking of you right now, mama." Sera adds.

"That'd be sweet." You smile as your eyes drift closed. Mother, it really has been a day. You barely realized how exhausted you are. You only barely register as the girls crowd around you as best they can, desperate for some level of proximity with their most important person…

--

Liangyu

"Ahahahahaha! Flee, you little fuckers!"

The bandits scatter and run in terror of the angelic madwoman as she knocks their leader out cold and her companions charge the field. The monster's laugh follows them on the wind, getting closer and closer with every second.

"I CAN FLY FASTER THAN YOU CAN RUN!!!"

Screams sound throughout the night…


You awake to a significant amount of weight atop you. Mei has successfully outfought her sisters for the right to lie atop you for the night, and judging from the happy little smirk on her sleeping face she's quite pleased with herself.

You studiously ignore how incredibly soft yet paradoxically firm her chest feels against yours and also how her hair kind of smells like the incense her mother is so fond of.

"Alright, girls. I'm going to get up, and anyone who's still on me when I do gets a punishment."

Predictably, Tianshi hangs off you as you rise where all others have fled your wrath. "You know something, Tia?"

"What, mama?"

"One would almost think you want me to punish you."

"So why don't you try it and see?" She taunts.


Tianshi

It's funny how innocently this all began.

At first, when you were too young to really realize it, you simply enjoyed being chased, being hunted. It was a fun game to play with your sire, and one she enjoyed as much as you. You never beat her, but that was fine — it was enough just to play with her.

It was when you got the drop on her that things really changed. That moment of pure outrage from her, the sense of impending danger — not real, of course, because you know your mama would never hurt you — sent a thrill through you that you've strived to replicate a hundred times since. Every game of cat and mouse, every petulant taunt, every angelic incursion you have wrought has been for the sole purpose of repeating that one exhilarating moment.

You assumed it was a sort of adrenaline rush, a safe stimulation of the surge of power that every living being gets when pushed or in danger. When you proposed this theory to your master she laughed aloud, telling you that when you truly understand and accept the origin of your feelings you'd achieve heights you never imagined.

She was right. After seeing how your sire… how Ariel absolutely ruined every woman she could get her hands on in response to the barest brush of your lips, you knew. That's what you want, what this entire game has been about — to be taken by your mother and ruined, to be made into a sobbing wreck that can barely move so that she can kiss you better in the aftermath.

And now you're getting a taste of it at last.


Your sisters will be annoyed, but screw them. You've waited patiently, and you're not technically violating the agreement you all made — you swore not to have sex with her, but a kiss and a spanking? That's fair game, and if you have to be the one to push mama further then so be it. They'll thank you for it later.

"Last chance, Tia." Her voice, even in warning, is almost literally music to your ears. How can she be so effortlessly erotic, so inherently sultry? It's legitimately unbearable — honestly, your sisters and yourself should get a medal for not just jumping her bones en masse by now.

You try to think of some last minute taunt to maybe extend your punishment, but at this point words fail you, so you just reach back and smack your own rear once. You're no Aunt Fi, not by any stretch of the imagination, but you feel your cheeks jiggle satisfactorily nonetheless.

There's a moment of silence between you both, and you wonder whether it's due to anger or lust on her end. You'd prefer the latter, to be honest, but the former has its—

Your vision goes white as a confusing mix of pain and pleasure race up and down your spine in unison. Your legs stiffen, thighs clench, and that sinful set of inner muscles inside you squeezes so tight that you'd be worried if someone were actually penetrating you. Pleasure surges across your every pore and for a terrifying moment you realize you've bitten off far, FAR more than you were prepared for.

The bliss fades slightly and you're vaguely aware of a stinging sensation on your bottom, but before you can really register it another smack falls upon your other cheek and you snap your jaw shut in a desperate attempt to fight off the moan that arises in response.

Somehow your sire picks up on your arousal and aims her spanks to maximize the effect she has on you — you no longer have the leeway to judge whether she's doing it subconsciously or not, and you're honestly not sure whether that's better. The idea of someone being able to play you like a fiddle without entirely meaning—

Another smack, then another, and every time your mind seems to skip a beat as the sensation overwhelms every fiber of being. Your thighs are wet, you realize somewhere in the back of your mind, and every new smack forces another squeeze and another flood of viscous fluid joins the flow.

Her hand seems to reach into the core of you as it strikes, squeezing in all the right ways to force pleasure to the surface of you, as if she's scraping away all the superfluous sensations you've felt up until now and replacing them with the one, true sensation.

How? How does she manage to somehow make you feel across your entire body when she only touches a single part of you? How does she strike you just hard enough that you're brought to the edge of a pleasure that you've thus far only known in private, but then no further?

How does she not notice how you're all but cumming in her lap?!

--

Outside

"That sneak! That… she… she!" Zaphi hisses, too furious for words, as she peeks into the room.

"Toldja." Soni chuckles. "Take too long and some of us will start finding ways to skirt the rules. Meimei's plan will only get you so far, Zaphi."

"I know that!" Zaphi hisses. "But you know how she is! How am I supposed to break through to her?"

"Well, for starters? Ask Tia." Soniel deadpans. "'cause I'd say it looks like she's got things figured out."

--

Tianshi

You want to cry, but you don't dare let tears escape you. If Ariel thinks she's actually hurting you she'll stop immediately, and you don't want that. Goddess, do you not want that.

She's only been edging you for a few seconds, and you're already starting to realize why people outside fear devils. If your mother wanted to, she could probably get a queen to sell out her country just so she'd finally get to orgasm.

Either luck or providence is on your side, because Ariel misjudges her aim and smacks much closer to your honeypot than she has been. The sudden proximity sends you clean over the edge and you squeal deep in your throat, desperately biting your lip hard to avoid outright screaming your pleasure for the whole house to hear.

This, of course, stops your punishment immediately, but you're too far gone to really notice or care.


Ariel

You stop as soon as you slip up and smack poor Tia a little too… intimately. You're too used to punishing Fi like this and slipped into a rhythm and…

Well. The shriek Tianshi lets out sounds perhaps a little too close to the pleasurable end of things for comfort, but then… it's better than actually hurting her, isn't it? If you'd have known she was this sensitive you'd have been more careful, but now there's no helping it, really.

Wait, what are you thinking? Part of you feels satisfied, the other horrified. Did you just… did she just…? Oh Mother, what have you done? What you've always wanted to do, of course, from the moment she became an adult.

Twin voices scream at one another in your head as you ease Tianshi off of you, cooing apologies and reassurances to her as you do so. You set her gingerly on the bed, rubbing her head and promising her she's a good girl and you didn't mean to and it's not her fault.

Once she's… ridden out the wave, she leans heavily into you and you lavish affection onto her. "Are you okay, sweetie?"

"'mfine." She mumbles, clearly a little out of things. "I was just… surprised. Um, that it hurt so bad."

She's clearly lying for your benefit, the absolute angel. It works a little at least, as the horrified part of you recedes in your mind. "You're not… you don't think I'm… I mean, you're not upset with me?"

"No!" Tia shakes her head with surprising vigor. "I wanted… I mean, it's fine. Um… I've gotta go. To talk with… to do my chores."

You're left sitting there with mixed feelings. You're pretty sure you just made your daughter cum. You're… well, you think she might have wanted that, but also you think you might be trying to justify it in your head after the fact.

But the more you think on it, the more things seem to point in the former's direction. Not just for Tianshi, but… well, all of the girls. Zaphi and Ava's odd behavior, Meimei's weirdly intimate need to personally feed you during meals, Tianshi being a brat on par with Fi, Soniel being Soniel.

Goddess, how could you not have noticed? That is, you did notice, but… they're your children! You never felt that way about Mika, and you certainly never felt like that about Kyna! The daughter of Justicia to ever feel like that for a member of their family was Asmodeus, and she's a devil!

You're a devil.

Oh.

Memories flood to the forefront of your mind, of a conversation with another devil not so long ago.

"I still can't just…" You wave your hands around. "I mean, what if they get the wrong idea?"

"What sort of wrong idea?" She asks, and you feel distinctly like a fish on a hook.

"I mean… look, it's just not appropriate." You say. "I mean, I know devils…"

Wait a second. You know devils what?

"Devils what?" She echoes your thoughts gently, and you shake your head.

You collapse back onto the bed, dimly aware of the wet spot where Tianshi sat just moments before, stare at the ceiling, and think.


It's all so obvious, in retrospect. It's a wonder you didn't see it sooner — if you're being charitable, you might say that you subconsciously didn't want to fully acknowledge that you're a devil in full, despite how you act. Maybe that's even true. Perhaps the idea just seemed so far out of the realm of possibility that you ignored the signs.

Whatever the case, you can't ignore it any longer. Your daughters have clearly been going out of their way to attempt to sleep with you in the not-so-innocent way, and they're just as clearly growing impatient. You're going to have to respond one way or another.

What will their mothers think? Actually, you have an answer for at least one of them — Evara. Her little comments here and there about Soniel's behavior mean she's more than likely aware of their source. But… was that approval, or was it her trying to get you to stamp the attitude out before it became a problem?

Liane might also know. She's spent long enough studying Infernal magics and devils, and she doesn't have the… 'mental block' you did. Zaphi and Mary are your shared firstborn, will she accept them giving their chastity to you?

Ju… well, you don't really know how Ju will feel. You know she's never had a biological family, and her training was apparently pretty sexual in nature so the closest thing she had to parents and siblings probably all but had sex with her. It might not even register for her, honestly.

But Sybil. Seraphiel may not be as overt as her sisters, but from what you know devils pretty universally desire their sires. Honestly, she probably wants both you and her mother, and that's why she hasn't been as focused as her sisters. Sybil, though… she's a priestess of Justicia. If anyone will protest this happening, it's her.

And what about children? You're pretty sure you don't want them getting pregnant so young, even… perhaps especially if you're the sire. Maybe? Maybe one day, but…

"Fuck." You swear — it's not something you do often, especially at home, but right now it feels like you can justify it. "Just… fuck."

Today is going to be a complicated day.


(QM Note: Your Morning slot is being consumed with the following scene because I am the meanest QM.)

You don't want to get out of bed right now. You'd really rather do anything in the world other than get all of your fiancées together and tell them: "Hey, I kind of realized our children would like to have sex with me, so…"

Sadly, no issue has ever simply vanished because you chose to ignore it or put it off (and Goddesses know you tried when you first Fell), so you reluctantly force yourself to exit your room. From the sound of things, the majority of your massive family is still eating, so you join them, eating Mei's delicious breakfast in silence.

Tianshi is nowhere to be seen, perhaps understandably, and you notice that more than one of her sisters is stares at you with something approaching hunger when they think you aren't looking. Actually, speaking of Tianshi… has Ju always looked so much like her, or is your recent encounter just messing with your perception?

Yeah, you're going to have to confront this sooner rather than later.

"Girls, how about you go play for a bit while I talk with your mothers? I'm sure your big sisters would be happy to watch you for a while." You shoot said big sisters a look that makes it clear that this isn't a request.

"'kay." Soniel replies cheerfully. "Who wants to see Squishy do tricks?" The malevolent gleam in her eyes is enough to tell you she's intentionally tormenting you by subjecting the rest of your spawn to that thing, but for the moment you have more important things to deal with.

Your younger spawn flood out of the room, some looking back at you curiously, all reluctantly led by your eldest. Your lovers look at you in unison, some expectantly, some knowingly, some confusedly… and one just completely absently.

Goddesses bless Fenri and her one-track mind.

"So." You begin, then clear your throat uncertainly. Mother, how are you even supposed to start? "Um, I've been thinking about some things, especially how the older girls have been acting, and how I'm a devil…"

You trail off, unable to really put the thought into words right away. You do notice, however, that Eva has a particularly malicious twinkle to match her daughter's, and Liane clearly sees where you're going with this. Maybe they'll say something instead so you won't have to!

The silence hangs for a long moment, and you realize neither of them is willing to aid you here. You'll remember that later. Oh, will you remember it.

"A-anyways. The girls, ah… they have… natural inclinations." You cough. "Like, well, most young women. But theirs tend a little closer to home."

"A lot closer, from what I hear." Eva finally comments, her smile reminding you distinctly of the infamous grins of catfolk.

You glare at her to inform her that she will absolutely pay for this later, but continue nonetheless. "Yes. Quite a bit closer. As in… I'm pretty sure that, er… they want to sleep with…" You gulp nervously. "Me."

Silence reigns.


You're not sure if the pressure you feel is in your head or an actual, palpable thing. It may as well be the latter, because you're pretty sure you're going to collapse under the collective weight of your fiancées gazes.

The pressure is broken when Merin audibly sighs, reaches towards her waist, and tosses a jingling pouch to Eva. Ju silently passes a pouch of her own to the elf as well, followed by a bitterly murmuring Fi. The bard cheerfully snatches up her newfound wealth, giving you a wink while she does so.

"Merin and Ju both thought Ju's kids would jump your bones before you realized anything. Fi had money on Zaphkiel." She explains, ignoring the greedy stare of a very envious Eluvi as she deposits the coins into her own pouch.

"Wh—" You begin, but you're cut off by Sybil.

"How can you four treat this as some sort of… some sort of game?" She says, her voice carefully controlled but clearly not happy. "What you are talking about, Ariel… it is… I mean, you cannot truly be considering going along with it, even assuming you are not mistaken? They are your children, for Justicia's sake!"

You wince. How do you respond to that?

"What's the big deal?" Eluvi asks. "It's not that weird. I mean, I've probably slept with my parents. It's hard to tell, since we raise our kids communally, but… I slept with most of Newgold, so..."

"Many dragons take their kobolds as lovers, and it isn't uncommon for them to be relatives." Ilyen adds.

"Beasts often embrace their family members as well without knowing." Asteria comments, nodding sagely. "Mother-sire relationships are not as common as sibling ones, but they do happen."

"I mounted my sisters to prove I was alpha. Did what I had to." Fenri agrees. "Never knew my mothers, but might have mounted them too if needed."

"That… that may be the case, but…" Sybil's face flushes red with both embarrassment and frustration. "Liane, please. Talk some sense into her."

Liane shakes her head apologetically and reaches out to grasp the priestess's hand. "I'm sorry, Sybil, but I agree with the others. I've known about this for a while now. Ariel's right, they're devils — this was always bound to happen."

Sybil jerks her hand away. "I know they are devils, but that does not mean they have to — they have been so, so… un-devilish!" She's almost shouting by the end of her sentence, something you don't remember her ever doing within earshot of you, and she flinches as she realizes it as well.

"I mean, I get you." Fi says sympathetically, her eyes awkwardly meeting Sybil's own. "I won't pretend that the idea of Vati someday wanting to sleep with Ariel doesn't make me feel a little off, but… I mean, if that's what she wants, then does it really matter?"

"It… it is not…" Sybil flounders, clearly struggling with the conversation and realizing she's outnumbered.

"How about you and I speak about it alone for a minute? Anyone else against this can stay as well." You say gently, not wanting her to feel pressured or bullied into accepting something she isn't comfortable with. Despite her discomfort she manages to give you a grateful smile.

No-one else stays, which is something of a relief, though you notice that more than one of them gives Sybil a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder or arm as they filter outside, apparently having realized for themselves that she was feeling overwhelmed.

"Alright." You say when it's just the two of you, reaching out to hold her hand. "I know this is a lot, Sybil, trust me — I've been in denial of it for a long time myself."

"I have as well, I think." She sighs, and her voice gains a bit of levity. "Honestly, looking back at the way they act around you… it is a wonder I did not see it before. Those girls are worse than novice priestesses on their first mission."

You snort. "They have been pretty overt, yes."

The levity vanishes from her voice. "But not Sera."

"No. Not Sera." You agree.

"But you think she wants… that with you all the same." Like before it's a statement, not a question.

"I do. I mean… I'm fairly certain. Devils universally desire their sire. I've always known that, but… well. Denial."

Sybil is silent for a long while, and her grip on your hand increases tenfold — which, in her case, doesn't amount to much, but it's a testament to her tempestuous emotional state nonetheless. When she finally speaks, it's with a sort of resignation mixed with resolve and something else you can't quite place.

"If… if Sera herself wants and truly needs this to be whole, then I cannot deny her." Your heart lifts, then stops as she speaks again. "But! You have to promise me, Ariel. Promise me that you will make sure the girls can experience more than just… this." She swings her arms out wide, as if to encompass the entirety of the homestead. "Encourage them to go out into Gaea, to see this beautiful world the Goddesses have wrought, to find love in places they never expected."

That little smile returns to her face at that last statement. "I know I would never have met you had I not left my little convent. Merin, Fi, Eluviendis, Asteria… none of them would be here if they had not chosen to see the world. I know you hate seeing them go, darling — Goddess knows it breaks my heart too. But it would break it far more to see their world be wrapped up in this one little corner when there is so much more out there for them."

"I can't force them to—"

Her other hand gently joins her first in clasping over your own. "I'm not asking you to force them, Ariel. Some may choose to stay, and that is their choice… but children often hate that which is good for them. Just make sure they try. A little, at least."

It's your turn to be silent, as you mull over what she's said. She's not wrong, you realize — even if you do hate the thought of any more of your children leaving your sight, it's something they need to do at least once. Hell, even Sial, a true devil, left her home to strike out on her own. If even the agents of Pandaemonium can stomach the thought of their children flying the nest, then you can too.


"Alright." You say finally, and both of you smile at one another. You've noticed it before, but she really does have an angelic smile — ironic pun entirely intended. "I'll do what I can to make sure they experience the outside world a bit. I can't promise that will take for some of them…" Your mind drifts to Zaphkiel, who you now realize is head-over-heels for you, "But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

"That is all I ask." She says gracefully, bowing her head… though a heavy sigh escapes her lips despite her words. "Ah, Goddess… be gentle with them, Ariel. I know firsthand how much you enjoy this particular activity, but they are not ready for the full extent of your lusts."

Your face burns crimson. "Er, yeah. I'll… I'll be careful."

"You had better." She sniffs daintily as she rises from her seat. "Oh! One more thing, darling. I know it may be a futile request, but perhaps you could wait a while before sowing your seed fully within them? It's difficult to explore the world when you have a babe on your hip, and having them leave their children behind would be cruel."

"I… they are rather young…" You say, two voices warring in your head once more.

"Indeed. Well, since the others seemed to have no real issue, I will tell the girls to meet with you." She pauses. "I mean it, Ariel. Be gentle, or I will be very cross."

"I will!" You say, a bit affronted and feeling like a child yourself. The little quirk of her lips in response implies that Sybil, of all people, has just had a bit of fun at your expense. What is the world coming to?

As she leaves the room, you can't help but feel that went about as well as could be expected… though you dread her reaction when she realizes Sera's incestuous desires probably aren't limited to just you.


There's a palpable buzz of excitement and eagerness in the air as your eldest daughters all return to the room and take their seats. No doubt they have some idea of what you're about to discuss. Even Tianshi seems to have recovered from her embarrassment this morning.

"So." You begin, with much more confidence than your last conversation. "Thanks to a certain someone," You tactfully avoid looking in her direction, but Tianshi shrinks in her seat a little regardless. "I've realized something that probably should have been obvious."

"Oh? Do tell, mama." Soniel says as she braces her elbows on the table and rests her chin in her palms. You give her a stern look that's only partially a joke.

"Your mother has already gotten on my bad side today, young lady, so don't push me." She sticks her tongue out at you playfully, and you respond in kind before continuing. "Anyways, since I now realize what you've all been after we're going to establish some rules."

Several of the girls groan in annoyance. "Hush. It's for your own good. Firstly, if you at all want to extend our activities to your mothers that will be up to them — and I suggest you be very delicate in bringing it up. You especially, Sera."

Your third daughter nods knowingly as you go on. "Good girl. I'll help with that talk if you want, of course, but it really needs to come from you. Next, you'll be expected to do what Lia did — go out into the world for a bit. You don't have to stay away for long, or go far… but Gaea is a big place, and you never know what wonders you might find. If your mothers had stayed in their hometowns all their lives you wouldn't even be here." Sure, you're basically stealing Sybil's speech here, but it was a good speech!

Zaphi, as you expected, looks considerably less than pleased at this rule, as does Ava. The others are varying degrees of nonchalant or accepting. "That leads into the next rule — no kids until you've done that."

That gets an actual outburst. "That's not fair!" Zaphi, Mei, and Tianshi all stand and shout in unison. Outside, you hear a sing-song elven voice call out: 'That's another twenty gold from each of you~,' followed by an angry halfling shout of 'FUCK!'

You hold up a hand as the three each list their grievances with the third rule in unison. "No. This is not up for discussion. Having a child is a major responsibility, and I'm not about to let you roam around the world with a newborn — or leave them at home, for that matter. Besides, I think you'll find that a little experience will round out your ability to be a mother."

The three of them return to their seats with varying levels of pout. "Good. I'll be casting Plan Better personally, so don't think you'll be able to weasel out of that rule." Each of them refuses to meet your gaze and you realize they'll probably try anyways. Oh well. They'll learn you're not so easily denied.

"And the last rule is that I can make as many more rules as I want whenever I want. Clear?" Seven heads nod at once. "Good. Now that the not-fun stuff is out of the way…" You pause, frowning. "Well, how are we doing this? I mean — is there an order you've all decided on, do you want me to buy you dinner first, that sort of thing?"

"Me and Ava are first!" Zaphi says rapidly, as if she's scared that someone else will steal the chance to establish priority. Avariel nods in agreement.

"I was joking about you having an order already, but alright." You smile. "Does tonight work for you?"

"YES!" They reply in unison, their cheeks reddening.

"Alright then. I'll make Eluvi take the little ones again, though…" You sigh. "Ada is going to be clingy tomorrow, I fear. Alright, who's after?"

The girls look between each other, some warily. Clearly they didn't think far beyond that first leap. Soniel and Sera look relatively unconcerned, however. "Alright, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

You look to the windows and realize that the morning has all but gone. "I think that's enough talk for now. Enjoy your day, girls. And you two, don't overthink things. I promise you'll do great."

They both swallow audibly as the rest scatter. You're pretty sure that, despite your words, they're going to be a mess mentally by tonight. You're almost jealous, to be honest. If only your own first time could have been something to get nervous over rather than… no. You're not going to ruin the day thinking about that.


"I'm going to go visit Eona." You tell your harem and children. "She needs to be informed of… what we discussed this morning." She may not want children right away, but she should be informed of this regardless. "Actually, before I go… do you want to visit your sister, Liane?"

The witch frowns for a moment, then shakes her head. "Not yet. I've got to figure out how to tell her about us and her nieces, in case things go… badly. I'll let you know when I'm ready."

You nod. "If that's what you want. I'll be back later!"

--

You're tempted to just fly through Eona's window, but decide against it. If she has a customer or some sort of business deal going on, you might end up making things awkward or ruining it entirely. Instead, you take the normal entrance, nodding to the redhead at the door… Kira, you remember her name is.

Huh. Did you remember that subconsciously and name your red-haired daughter after her?

Whatever. It's a cute name, and little Kira is an angel… or Fallen Angel, as the case may be. Except none of your daughters ever actually Fell, so you're not sure if that's the right term. Dark Angel? Super Cute Angel? Awesome Adorable If-Anybody-Hurts-You-I'll-Throw-Them-Off-A-Cliff Angel?

You're opening the door to Eona's room before you even realize it, having gotten lost in your ruminations on angelic naming conventions. Four figures stop mid-conversation, looking at you in surprise… and in two cases, outright embarrassment.

Eona is dressed as she ever is, and has set up her desk in the center of the room. Across from her sits Stella, who is wearing a different ensemble from yesterday. This one you'd call 'tastefully lewd,' being a low-backed black dress that you'd expect a noble to wear to a fancy dinner. While confused and somewhat happy at seeing you, neither of these women are the embarrassed occupants of the room.

Rosie's cheeks match her name color-wise, no doubt thanks to the frilly bra and panties she's wearing. The former strains to hold her overlarge bosom, causing breastflesh to just barely spill out over the fabric. She's facing away from you, and you can just see that her panties are similarly hard-pressed to contain her bottom before her tailfeathers flatten and point down, blocking your sight.

Khel has really grown up. Instead of the near-lingerie that Rosie is wearing, she's got on a uniform you immediately make a mental note to purchase for Ilyen later. It's a maid outfit, but designed to be playfully sexy — shorter skirt, shorter arms, a midsection pulled tight by an outer binding tied with cute little ribbons… you nearly drool picturing the near-dragon in that outfit.

"Er… sorry to interrupt." You say after a moment, not at all sincerely.

"Not at all, mademoiselle Ariel!" Stella claps her hands together delightedly. "I had no idea you were a customer of the Ménagerie de Monstres. I would have asked directions before we parted, had I known." She laughs and you just barely hear a little of Zaphi's laugh in it.

"She's not a customer." Eona says with some annoyance. "Nor, to my eternal frustration, an employee."

"Ah, but she would make you a rich woman, non?" Stella nods. "Especially clad in my fabrics, I think."

You ignore the two businesswomen as they get into discussing the finer points of your potential value as a prostitute, instead turning to the clearly mortified Rosie and Khel. "Are you two alright? I can leave if I'm embarrassing you…"

"No, I'm fine!" Rosie squawks. "You just surprised me! It's totes fine, though. Like, you've seen me with less on anyways."

"That's true." You grin. "Watchers don't really wear much."

"It's hard to fly with too much stuff on." She huffs. "Still, this is kinda tight for me."

"I can tell."

Khel's mouth doesn't seem to work and she shows no sign of fixing that, so you turn around. "Sorry, Khel. I, ah… didn't know you worked here."

"I j-just started." She manages to stutter out now that you can't see her. "Um, you're welcome to drop by though."

"Sorry? I didn't quite catch that last part." It feels a bit mean to tease the kobold — you heard her just fine. Still, she's so cute that you can't help it.

"Nothing!" She squeaks.

Taking mercy on her, you instead focus back in on the conversation between Stella and Eona. "Non, I think white suits her better. See how it offsets her hair and wings? It frames her like the moon frames the night."

"Hm." Eona mutters, looking you over. "I think you're right. Do you have anything that would fit her?"

"Oui, plenty." She claps her hands again. "I can have my aides bring something at once."

Stella leaves to do as much before you can stop her. "Wait, don't I get a say in… whatever this is?"

"You interrupted an important business meeting." Eona replies. "This is the price you pay."

--

You ask what's even happening as your group awaits the delivery of some clothes for you to try on.

"Well, like, I was talking with Haley — you know Haley, she's got the cute little stripes on her tailfeathers? Anyways, Haley was like 'ohmygosh Rosie there's this cute girl my wife knows and you should totes meet her,' so I was like ''kay,' and we met and she was super sweet and we kinda ended up here for some business thing?"

"Miss Delaroux is here to sell her products, and said products happen to be quite useful in my line of work." Eona picks up the story. "Both Khel and Miss Rosie possess body types common to my workers which a designer not familiar with monsters may not be prepared for, so I thought it prudent to use them as models. I actually had Ást here as well to test for centaur compatibility, but…"

"I was woefully unprepared." Stella shakes her head sadly, her pink tresses making a wave due to the motion. "Something I will remedy soon, though. I have many ideas already to take advantage of the centaur body."

"I see." You say at last. "And I suppose you need me to test the body of someone with arms and wings?"

"Multiple pairs of wings." Eona corrects you. "It's not very common, but there are some insect breeds who will need something similar."

"And I hope to ace this particular test!" Stella smiles. "And if my ears are not mistaken, that is our delivery now…"


You opt to just change in the room — Rosie and Khel are both monsters and have probably seen their fair share of bare skin, Stella has doubtless seen many models in the nude, and Eona has literally had you inside of her.

That is to say, you perhaps overlook just how ludicrously attractive you've gotten as of late. "So I just pull this bit here?" You gesture towards a pair of ribbons on the front of a white dress that may as well be made of the damned things. You've got it more-or-less on, it's just really loose at the moment.

Loose enough that what should be a generous cleavage window is giving a good view of your bare teats. "A-ah… yes, mademoiselle." You hear Stella gulp audibly as she gingerly reaches across you to demonstrate. "Ah, mademoiselle Khel? If you could grab that part there — oui, that one."

Khel's breathing is so heavy you can feel the moisture gathering on your near-bare breasts, but together they manage to tighten the outfit around you without giving in to raw lust. "You don't think this looks a little too… youthful on me?"

It's the ribbons, you think. There's so many of them and all over the damn place. You think Akael would really like something like this — it's the sort of thing you'd expect to see on a fairytale princess.

"A bit." Eona admits. "Though you look young, so it fits."

"I don't look that young." You huff.

"You look to be in your early twenties at the latest, Ariel." Eona replies dryly.

"Yeah! Like, if I didn't know better I'd say you're younger than me." Rosie adds, though you notice she's having trouble looking directly at you. An issue she shares with every occupant of the room sans Eona, who for her part is able to keep things mostly professional despite herself.

"Damnation, woman. Why must you insist on being the most desirable thing to ever set foot in my establishment and still refuse to work for me?" She sighs aloud. "I could buy this whole city if you worked here for a year."

"Seriously. I'd pay for a night with you. Lots of nights." Rosie says with the casual ease that most monsters possess towards sex. "Like, you'd probs bleed me dry, if I'm honest."

"Thank you." You reply, a little embarrassed at her blunt admission. "What do you think, Khel?"

What comes out of her mouth is a jumble of syllables that cannot in any sense be considered words.

"… thanks." You say, just in case it was a compliment. It probably was.

"Well, I believe this proves the potential of this dress, non?" Stella asks Eona.

"It does indeed." The brothel mistress nods. "Actually, if given to the right insect, we could perhaps do a faerie theme…"

You shuck off the dress, put on your robe, and bid the group farewell as they get back to work. Judging from how some of them were squeezing their thighs together by the time you left, though…

Well. You wouldn't be surprised if your daughters aren't the only ones to cum to thoughts of you tonight.

(Temptation is now Rank 10!)


Your encounter with Khel brings a certain thought to the forefront of your mind, which is: How are Lucia and Valerie doing?

That thought diverts you from your homeward path and straight towards the dungeon. By now you're more than powerful enough to scare off any bats stupid enough to try and bring you down, so you fly through the tunnels as well to reach Newgold that much faster.

"ANGEL!" The watch-kobold shouts, and you're soon inundated with enough of the scaled monsters to overwhelm a party of well-trained adventurers. The chatter that sounds from their many mouths is difficult to parse due to its sheer volume (both sound and amount-wise), but you get the general gist of 'we've been good!'

"I'm glad to hear it." You laugh. "Is Lucia around? I wanted to check on her and Val."

"I know where they are!" A greenish kobold who is either a teenage or a young adult holds up a hand. You notice she looks a bit more serpentine than the others, thanks to her slit pupils. "Pick me!"

"Alright, I pick you." You smile at her, making her blush. You really do have an effect on scalekin, don't you? Maybe it's an inherited thing, and it will turn out that Tiamat has a crush on Asmodeus or something. Ha! As if. "What's your name?"

"Ariel." She answers cheerfully as she leads you into Newgold. Instead of the little hole in the wall the lovers were in last time, you're led towards Eluvi's old hoard — now Lucia's current hoard. Your steps falter as she tells you her name, but you continue regardless.

"That's a… nice name." You manage to reply, hoping that doesn't make you a narcissist.

"Thanks! My moms gave it to me."

Her moms? Eluvi said kobolds are raised communally, so that doesn't… wait. Your brain runs through your available information and comes up with a likely answer to this conundrum. Serpentine eyes, named after you, raised by her parents…

"Why didn't you say you're Lucia's daughter?" You ask the kobold who shares your name.

"You didn't ask." She replies, not at all sarcastically. "Oh, wow. I've never seen the new blood scatter like that."

You look where her gaze leads and see a small horde of viper kobolds disperse, clambering up walls and into little hidey-holes. It takes you a moment, but you're able to place their shared features — these would appear to be the kobolds that spectacularly failed to ambush you just before you fought Nael.

"Their dragon got beaten and taken away, so they live here now!" Ariel the not-you cheerfully explains. "They were kinda rough at first, but mom whipped 'em into shape."

A pang of guilt runs through you. You hadn't actually considered that any kobolds under Nael would probably have to relocate after she was taken care of. Not that you regret what you did, but… well. At least they've found somewhere new, even if you apparently left something of a lasting impression.

Lucia and Val are lounging together on a pile of pillows and silks that reminds you of Eona's own similar pile. "Ariel!" Val perks up as the two of you enter. "And… ah. Ariel." She grins a little sheepishly. "Met already, have you?"


"We have." You reach out to pat not-you Ariel on the head. "I'm flattered, by the way." Not-you Ariel has delightfully silky hair and quite enjoys the attention, closing her eyes and leaning her head into your hand as Valerie explains.

"Well, seeing as we're able to be together because you were around to save us, it seemed appropriate." She opens her arms wide. Not-you Ariel darts forward and dives into her mother's hug, a sight that makes you smile… and feel a little something else as you realize you'll be holding your daughters in a much less motherly way soon.

A light cough serves to both distract you from your incestuous thoughts and them from what you assume are less incestuous mutterings. "Sorry I haven't visited for a while. Things have gotten a bit hectic."

"So we hear." Lucia grins, flashing her serpentine fangs in the process. "Thanks for getting rid of Nael, by the way."

"You heard—? Ah, the 'new blood.'" You recall the skittering hoard from a few scant minutes ago.

The alicante laughs aloud. "They were pretty ornery at first, I'll admit… until they found out we're friends. I'm not sure if they're more scared of you or turned on by you, but either way threatening to sic you on them got them in order easily enough."

You have to stifle a laugh of your own at the mental image of an attack angel on a leash chasing down a bunch of kobolds. "Glad to be of help, I guess."

"Mhmm." The lamia wraps herself around her lover and daughter happily as she continues. "Is this a business visit, or just a friendly one?"

You shrug. "Friendly. It's been a while and I wanted to see how you've been."

"Come sit down, then." Lucia wriggles to the side to provide a gap for you to sit down next to herself and her family. "No reason you should have to stand while we catch up."


"So I see I missed my namesake's early years." You say, reaching out to rub the scalekin's head once more as you take a seat.

"She's an angel." Val replies proudly, also reaching over to lavish affection on her child. "So it turns out your name fit for more than one reason."

"Are you now?" You ask the girl in question, and you see her cheeks flush in embarrassment.

"Mom's just saying that." She mumbles. "Because I help out from time to time."

"Help out how?" You push, sensing her discomfort and delighting in tormenting the youthful. Unfortunately she's wise to your sadism and clams up in response. If she thought that would save her, however, she's sorely mistaken — her parents are more than happy to brag in her place.

"She spends most of her time out in the tunnels." Lucia begins, flicking the girl's nose with the tip of her tail. "Helping adventurers."

She quickly lists a variety of heroic exploits, ranging from leading lost adventurers to safety to outright fighting off wyverns and spawn to buy them time to escape.

"The other day she saved this delightful mage with black hair." Val says conspiratorially. "Now, I'm not saying she's inherited her sire's tastes, but—"

"MOM!" Not-you shrieks, her cheeks crimson as she turns to you to explain. "She was just lost and I happened to be there at the time, so I led her back here—"

"—from pretty deep in the dungeon, from what I heard—"

"—AND SHE SAID THANKS AND NOTHING ELSE HAPPENED!" Not-you Ariel's voice raises in volume to drown out her mother. "Ahem. Anyways, I'm not that great. I like the tunnels, adventurers get in trouble there a lot, and it's not like I can just not help, so…"

"I see." You smile knowingly. Despite her words, she's obviously protesting a little too much, particularly in regards to the unnamed mage she helped out. "Well, I'm glad to hear that someone I share a name with isn't willing to leave someone in trouble."

"That's sort of how your mom and I ended up together, actually." Lucia hums as her tail thrashes at the memory. "There I was, fleeing a group of vicious gnolls—"

"And then you saved mom and got chased further, then the angel came by and saved you." Not-you rolls her eyes. "Come on, mom. I've heard that story so many times I see it when I close my eyes."

"It's a good story." Lucia sniffs, affronted. "Dramatic, romantic, everything."

"Uh-huh." Not-you replies, clearly disagreeing. "Thanks though." She turns to you. "I mean, I dunno about me not being here if it weren't for you, but you saved my moms. That counts for something."

"Of course." You answer her gratitude easily, a mischievous smile playing at your lips. "I couldn't just not help, right?"

Her cheeks redden again. "Er, yeah."

"You never know what happiness might come about from your help, Ariel." You tell her, ignoring how odd it feels to use your own name here. "I know it doesn't feel like you're doing something worthy of praise most of the time, and humility is a virtue — but I think I agree with your mother. At the very least, I can say I'm happy to share my name with you."

She mumbles a response you don't hear, making you think of another young kobold you know. Still, you're pretty sure there was a whispered 'thanks' in there somewhere.

--

You spend a while longer with the trio, exchanging stories of cave management and your exploits. From what you gather, Newgold, while not a full-on trading hub, has garnered a reputation for being a safe zone in the dungeon, a sort of resting place for those who need somewhere to stay and don't want to pay in sex like they often have to in Gobtown.

Nael's former brood is still acclimating, but they're gradually coming along. Lucia assures you that they're not likely to hold any lasting grudge for you beating Nael — if anything, they're more likely to try to organize in your name from now on.

"Doesn't happen with non-dragons all that often, but if you leave an impression…" She shrugs. "Just so you're not caught off guard next time you drop by and they're making statues of you or something."

Huh. That's… you're not sure how you feel about that.

--

As much as chatting with friends and tormenting a young woman who has no bult-up resistance to your teasing in the way your own children do has been, you really do need to get home. You're pretty sure that if you leave Zaphi and Ava waiting too long they might start taking hostages or something.

You bid the kobolds of Newgold farewell, noticing that some of them don't really seem to blink when they look at you, and also that they look like they're from Nael's brood. Goddess, you kind of thought Lucia was kidding — that look borders on outright worship!

If you happen to flee the dungeon a little faster than you came, no-one but you will ever know.

(Persuasion is now Rank 10!)


There's an unidentifiable energy in the air when you land on the homestead's well-kept grass. The sun has long since fallen and the moon's light is obscured by clouds, leaving the cottage the only source of light in the area.

It's simultaneously inviting and intimidating — within lies a night you've always wanted without realizing it. Speaking of realizations, it occurs to you that you've been flying all over the place and really could use a bath…

Once you're nice and clean, you return to the cottage and prepare yourself for a night with your daughters.

--

Zaphi and Ava are, predictably, already in your room when you poke your head inside. Ava is sitting cross-legged on the foot of your bed in meditation, while Zaphkiel is frantically pacing its perimeter while gnawing on her thumb.

"Nervous?" You ask, and you're rewarded with both of them nearly jumping out of their skins in surprise.

"Mama!" Zaphi shouts, a mix of indignation and joy on her face. "We thought… we thought that maybe you'd…"

"Changed my mind and ran away?" You ask. She doesn't answer, but the guilt on her face tells the tale regardless. Guilt of your own sets in at having made them think as much, so you slide into the room and sweep them both into a hug. "Never. Even if this weren't something I want, I would never abandon the two of you without a word like that."

They cling to you tightly for a long moment before their grips gradually weaken and you notice a sudden tension in them, a nervousness that takes root as they realize that the hour they've long fought for has finally arrived. Wordlessly, Zaphi crawls onto the bed beside her sister and they lie side by side, holding one another's hands and awaiting your union.


You very briefly consider performing a bit of a tease as you strip out of your robes, but decide against it. From the way even strangers have been reacting to your mere presence, you can pretty easily gather that you're almost raw attractiveness given form these days.

Take that, mix it with their natural devilish desires and youth… well, you don't want to overwhelm them too fast, and Sybil made you promise to be gentle besides. So instead of a sensuous strip tease, you opt instead to remove your clothing normally, as you do every night.

You take no small amount of satisfaction in the fact that the two of them watch you with wide eyes regardless, as enraptured with the sight of your casual disrobing as the average Gaean youth is with the sight of an elvish dancer.

Zaphi's can't help but touch her own breasts as yours spill free, squeezing herself and moaning softly, unconsciously, as she takes in the sight of you. The sight sends a thrill of excitement down your sign and into your crotch, and part of you marvels out how some of your unconscious seductive skills have manifested in your eldest daughter.

Avariel, on the other hand, looks almost like a newbie adventurer who has just realized that picking a fight with a dragon may have been unwise. Uncertainty wars with excitement and determination for control of her emotional state, and as your nakedness is exposed to her each facet intensifies in turn, leaving her in a state you can only think to describe as confusedly aroused.

Part of you really wants to sculpt a second cock and just take them both at once, but… that feels a little impersonal, somehow. Each of your girls deserves your full attention, and so you are left to decide who to take first… or so you'd say, but really there's only one choice.

Zaphkiel has a complex about being the eldest that you've taken pains to rectify, but you know deep down that she will be absolutely crushed if you don't pop her cherry before her sisters'. Ava will just have to stew in her confused arousal for a while longer while you put Zaphi's insecurity to rest for good — and hey, maybe seeing you be gentle with Zaphi will ease some of Ava's fears.

"Zaphi." You say as you let your robe fall to the floor and expose your womanhood, soothing and seductive all at once. "Are you ready?"

She gulps and nods, still not trusting herself to speak. You crawl onto the bed and hover over her as Ava scoots aside, leaving you hovering over your eldest daughter in the nude.

Her mouth opens wide in arousal and awe as her eyes rapidly scan up and down your body, drinking in the sight of you with a hunger you've never seen from Zaphi before. You lower yourself towards her slowly, relishing the sight of her squirming as eroticism overwhelms her.

"Zaphi." You whisper, your mouth barely centimeters from her own.

"Mama?" She breathes, her breath coming shallower.

"I love you." Your lips touch her own, and the world goes still. All vanishes from your consciousness save for the feeling of your daughter's lips, her beautiful yellow eyes, wide with shock and joy, her heartbeat, which you swear you can feel alongside your own through her lips.

That overpowering arousal you felt from kissing her younger sister ignites within you once more, and you politely but insistently press your tongue into Zaphi's mouth. Her mind takes a moment to catch up to her body, but when it does she happily accepts your intrusion and you are free to explore her mouth with your organ.

What you wouldn't give for a tongue like Ilyen's. As it is, your own appendage lacks the length and flexibility to explore every crevice of your daughter's mouth and throat, which is simply unacceptable. Something to rectify in the future, perhaps, though for now it's probably for the best. You're supposed to be going easy on her, after all.

You focus on her tongue, tracing it with your own, coiling around it with all the love of a mother embracing her daughter. Every new movement brings a squeal of surprise and ecstasy from Zaphkiel as she experiences new pleasures at your hands. Her body jerks and thrashes beneath you, the jiggle of her ample bosom beneath her pajamas reminding you of other possible uses for your tongue.

You break the kiss and look down at your daughter with pride and satisfaction. She looks to be in absolute bliss, her features the picture of a woman who has recently undergone a divine revelation. She focuses her eyes on yours with some effort, and a cutely childish expression of dissatisfaction paints her face. "Why did you stop?"

Instead of answering verbally you reach down to the area between you, searching for the bottom of her pajama shirt. Once you find it you wrench the garment up, causing her to let out an "eep!" of embarrassment as her massive breasts spill out into the open air. Zaphi, as an intelligent young woman, realizes your intentions and raises her arms so that you can remove the clothing entirely, leaving your daughter well and truly topless.

You haven't really seen Zaphi's breasts this way. Or rather, you've been subconsciously avoiding looking at them due to your denial of your feelings. They're huge — perhaps not quite as big as her mother's, but certainly within Liane's weight class. More intriguingly, her nipples are inverted, making the tips of her breasts look cutely puckered.

"Hiding from me, Zaphi?" You ask teasingly as you heft both of her breasts in your hands. Goddess, how do she and her mother get around with these things weighing them down? She could probably kill a woman with these things if she really tried.

"N-no." She shudders and sighs as you caress her chest. "T-they're just like that. Um, if I play with them a little they usually pop out."

There's something indescribably tantalizing about your erudite prodigy of a daughter being reduced to a stuttering schoolgirl at your touch. "Play with them a little? Like… this?" One breast is released so that you can tease the other's areola with the tips of your fingers, swirling them around her hidden nipple to coax it into the open.

Slowly but surely her nipple stiffens and begins to swell, the puckered tip gradually vanishing to reveal a proud nub of pink flesh that all but begs for your attention. "There you are~" You say in near sing-song delight. "Hello, my love."

Your mouth closes around your prize before you even realize what you're doing, and you can feel Zaphi's body shiver in incestuous delight beneath you as her voice raises in pitch and intensity. "Mama! I'm sensitive there, be — nnggg!!!"

As it did before, your tongue sets itself to exploring every square inch of Zaphi's flesh that it can reach, paying special attention to her now-exposed nipple. You feel like you're playing an instrument with how vocally she reacts to you playing with her. Every gentle suckle or tongue flick elicits a moan or squeal of delight that is, quite literally, music to your ears.

Of course, you can hardly leave her other breast alone, and so you repeat the process you just performed… with some variance, for fun. Namely, instead of teasing it out with your finger, you lavish it with attention from your tongue right away, marveling at the feeling of her nipple swelling to prominence in your mouth.

With both of her nubs out in the open, you realize there are several different avenues you can take from here, each appealing in its own way.


You may as well get her wet and sensitive before you introduce her to the tool that gave her life. Grabbing both breasts in your hands, you heave her nipples to your mouth in unison and do your best to fit as much of her tits into your mouth as you possibly can. It's a losing endeavor, of course — there's just too much of her to take — but you're able to get at both of her nipples, lathering them with your saliva and affection as you suckle each teat in unison.

Zaphi all but screams at the attention, her chest heaving in time with her breathing and making it almost a struggle to keep her in your mouth. To ease your upcoming endeavors a bit you perform a bit of minor magic and gently lubricate her massive mounds with your hands as you simultaneously tease her nipples with your tongue.

Once you've determined for absolute certain that Zaphkiel is not lactating at the moment, you release her from your efforts and move up her body so that your crotch hovers over her midsection. She blinks at you, her vision bleary from arousal, confusion etched on her face.

"Mama? What are you… oh!"

Her mouth forms a lovely and enticing 'O' as you sculpt your manhood into existence, the towering rod that planted your seed within her mother casting a shadow over her upper torso and face. "Here I am, Zaphi. Is it everything you ever imagined?"

A gasp from beside you tells you that Avariel is enamored, at least, and Zaphi reaches up to touch your shaft as if in a trance. "It's so warm, somehow soft and hard at the same time…"

"It's not like you don't have one too." You note with amusement as you lower your hips so that you can sandwich your cock between her breasts. A moan escapes you, unbidden, as her soft breastflesh enfolds your member. Her breasts are perfect for this, much like her mother's — sinfully soft and pliant, yet firm enough that you're actually being squeezed by something.

"I… I never bring it out. Never interested. I wanted yours to be the one I really saw and touched." She admits with no small amount of embarrassment, the pink of her cheeks no longer solely due to arousal.

That's… really sweet, in an odd sort of way. "Well, I hope it was worth the wait." You tease as you begin rocking your hips back and forth, cooing with delight as you use her tits to milk yourself… an odd sort of role-reversal, which you'd think about if you had the spare mental capacity at the moment.

Zaphi, to your delight, is feeling good as well, as she doesn't even bother trying to hide the pleasure she feels from her chest at the touch of your member. Her eyes stare, transfixed, as the head of your cock pokes free of both her breasts and your foreskin. With a mixture of longing and seduction she turns her gaze towards your eyes and opens her mouth wide, lolling her tongue out like a red carpet in clear invitation.

Not one to turn down such a polite offer, you move forward, thrusting harder and deeper into the crevasse of her bosom, working your cockhead up to her tongue in short order. For a brief moment you think your mind has exploded, only to realize that the sudden feeling of her tongue on the underside of your glans nearly sent you over the edge all at once.

A little magic sees your cock stretch even further so that she can fit your entire head into her mouth, and now you're uncertain whose moans are louder between yours and her own. Though unskilled, Zaphi puts her all into servicing your cockhead, using her tongue and pillowy lips both to milk your glans as if her life depends on it.

Wet slaps and aroused voices dominate the room, and out of the corner of your eyes you see as Avariel stares, utterly enraptured, as you titfuck her older sister. The sudden stark reminder of the taboo nature of your current activities ends up pitching you clean over the edge, and all too quickly you feel a tell-tale tingling as your seed prepares to fly to freedom.

Zaphi can tell the end is near too, as she leans up from her lying position to take more of you into her mouth even as she makes a fist on the outside of each of her breasts so that she can knead you to completion. Surprised at her forwardness, all you can do as your seed comes boiling out of your shaft is grasp the back of her head as it spills into her eager mouth.

Spurt after thick spurt of your seed sprays into the roof of Zaphi's mouth and into the back of her throat as she shivers and moans in ecstasy, a miniature orgasm of her own rocking her body as the source of her life fills her senses. After a long moment you pull back from her, your cock flopping from her mouth to slap against a nipple before resting against your leg.

Zaphi opens and closes her mouth, her eyes staring out into nothing, unfocused. Her tongue swirls in her closed mouth as she savors your taste like a sommelier savors fine wine before she finally swallows… and swallows, and swallows some more, the quantity and stickiness of your cum making it a surprisingly difficult task, though hardly one she abhors.

When she finally finishes she opens her mouth once more as if to show you what a good job she did, and sure enough there's not so much as a droplet of your cum to be seen. Your cock immediately stands at attention once more, and your eyes flick down towards her legs — or rather, the prize that waits between them.


Zaphkiel spreads her legs as you lower yourself back down her body, returning your cock to its normal size. Your daughter either shaves or is naturally hairless, and her pink inner lips just barely peek out from her labia as she drips raw arousal onto the sheets beneath her.

You take your cock into your hand and press the head against her sodden lips, rubbing up and down and enjoying the mixture of new pleasure mixed with the phantom afterglow of your recent orgasm. Zaphi mewls excitedly as you tease her, each utterance accompanied by what seems to be a new flood of sexual fluids against your member.

When neither you or she can bear the wait any longer you press yourself against her slit; the only thing preventing you from penetrating her now is a lack of force. Her eyes find yours and she reaches up with one hand, which you quickly entwine with your own. "Ready, Zaphi?"

"Always." She breathes, and you press forward, marveling as the cold air outside of her is replaced by perfect, all-encompassing, wet, silky, squeezing warmth.

This is bliss, pure and simple. Nothing in all of creation has ever felt more right, more perfect, than this moment. Zaphkiel's maidenhead offers no true resistance, practically melting away at your touch as if its one purpose for being has finally been fulfilled. Your daughter's chastity is yours, now and forever, and you are complete.

Once the near-revelatory enlightenment in your mind fades, you're assaulted by the unimaginable pleasure of your union. Zaphi's pussy tightens rhythmically around your shaft, each pulse dragging you deeper and deeper into her even without any effort on your part. When you finally hilt yourself within her you find yourself struggling to pull back, such is the force of her grip.

Still, there's only so much a new Fallen can do in the face of your greatly enhanced strength, so you're able to pull out and then press back in with increasing force and rapidity. You don't pound her anywhere near as fast and hard as you would someone like Fi, of course, but you establish a respectable pace to your lovemaking all the same.

Eluvi would be envious of Zaphi at this moment, you think. Her face, neck, tits… nearly all of her is reddened with arousal, making her lovely yellow eyes stand out starkly all the same. They're filled with awe, joy, accomplishment, love, and a thousand other things at once, and you realize that your own eyes must reflect something similar. "I love you, Zaphi."

"I love you, mama." She manages to answer, her hitched breathing making it just a bit more difficult on her. "I love you so much."

You dive down and kiss her once more, and this time she returns your kiss with fervor. Your every part touches her every part — tongue touches tongue, breasts press against breasts, crotch impales crotch. Mother and daughter embrace in a way that most of the world would call taboo, but you can only call beautiful.

You hook both arms beneath her legs and lift them, granting you more leverage to thrust in new ways and touch parts of her she's never felt or even imagined. The silken folds of her pussy begin to lose their rhythm as she approaches her climax, quivering erratically around your cock as you bring her to her breaking point.

She screams into your mouth with pleasure and joy as she finally cums. Her orgasm, a culmination of everything she's worked for her entire adult life, surges through her body like a storm — a storm you happen to be on the receiving end of as her pussy desperately milks your shaft for all it's worth, as if begging you to cum in unison with her.

Thankfully, this last-ditch effort on the part of her body proves sufficient, and once more a tingly, all-consuming pleasure builds in your shaft. Even as you continue to pump into her, forcing her orgasm to continue, the sensation grows until it is an all-consuming feeling in your crotch, held back by only the weakest of dams — which soon breaks, flooding seed into your daughter's delighted womb as she coos in incestuous rapture.


You don't know how long you spend atop your eldest daughter, your every sense tuned into her every fiber of being in the bliss of afterglow. Her breath tickles your skin and sounds magnificent in your ears, her skin smells and feels unbelievably incredible against your own. For a moment you wonder if you've accidentally drugged yourself with your own spells, but then you realize that this is simply the natural result of devilish incest — pure ecstasy.

It is with no small amount of regret that you push yourself off (and out) of her, retrieving a towel from beneath the bed to cleanse yourself of the various fluids of your union. For her part, Zaphi has already drifted off into contented slumber.

Well, that at least makes this next part easier. Hovering one hand over her womb, you pulse a quick Plan Better spell, satisfied in the… wait. Your eyes narrow as a makeshift Crest lights up on her womb in response to your spell, repelling your attempt to ensure she doesn't get pregnant.

"Did she…?" You lean closer to the mark, then glance at Ava, who scratches her neck awkwardly.

"Um, she didn't think you'd notice it." She replies. "I told her you would, but you know how she is."

"Uh-huh." You deadpan as you cast your spell again, this time giving it a bit of 'oomph' to power through your daughter's admirable — if insufficient — attempt to block your magic. The makeshift Crest shatters and vanishes as your magic overpowers hers and Plan Better does its job.

"Well." You sigh as you gently move Zaphi to a corner of the bed and tuck her in. "Sorry if that scared you a bit, sweetie. I tried to be gentle, but…"

"It's fine." She manages to stammer out. "If Zaphi can take it, I can too."

"Oh?" You ask, a bit of playfulness returning to your voice. "Look at my little girl brimming with confidence. Ready to make me proud?"

"Always." She straightens her back as she replies in an echo of her sister's words.

"Confident enough to take charge?" You ask, mostly kidding. To your surprise, she makes her way over to you and gently presses you onto your back, her black eyes staring into yours. Her determination is cute in it's own way, and you welcome her effort. "Ha. Come on then, Ava. Show me what you've got."


For a moment she seems utterly lost, but inspiration seems to strike her easily enough. Climbing back off you, she strips down so that she's equally bare before lowering herself — in reverse, this time, so that her head is above your crotch, while her crotch… well.

Unlike Zaphi, Ava has a bit of hair just above her lips, the black hair tastefully complimenting her tanned skin. Thanks to her legs being spread around your head the labia are open and you're granted a full view of her pink inner lips, glistening with arousal.

You twitch a little as she wraps her hands around your cock, lifting it to her face as she talks to you. "I… this is my first time with someone else's, but if you're anything like me…"

Apparently you are, because Ava knows exactly where to touch. Tugging back your foreskin, she gives you a few solid pumps before giving your glans a tentative lick. You moan in pleasure, providing her the encouragement she needs to go further.

Ava goes about her first blowjob in a way you'd expect a from a martial artist — thoroughly and with care. Her lips and tongue trace every inch of your shaft, all the way down to — and including, at times — your balls. Every time you moan or twitch, she remembers what she did or where she touched you.

You have to hand it to Ava — her method works. Soon she's gathered an idea of what works and what doesn't, which she combines with her knowledge of her own experimentation to put together a surprisingly skilled blowjob for a virgin.

One hand pumps and twists around your shaft as she opens her mouth and takes you into her, bobbing her head in time with her hand while her other hand goes to caress her would-be sisters (or daughters?) below. You lie back and let her go to work, enjoying the sensation of your daughter doing her utmost best to bring you to climax…

…until a wet droplet of arousal spills from her lower lips onto you. Amused, you reach up to grab her bottom and pull her pussy down to meet your tongue, much to her surprise. She tastes absolutely heavenly, the flavor of her seeping into your mouth and nose as you begin eating her out with incestuous furor.

A pop from your lower half sounds as she pulls you free of her mouth and she looks back at you in protest even as her lips (both of them) betray her pleasure. "H-hey! I'm supposed to be making you feel good!"

You give her a long, languid lick from top to bottom, savoring her shivers as you do so. "Making you feel good makes me feel good, so…"

She huffs at your usual ability to turn things around on your children, then goes back to servicing your cock with an intensified need to see you orgasm before you can force the same upon her. Giggling, you return to orally pleasuring her virgin pussy, kissing and nibbling here and there so that she can really feel your motherly affection.

Slurps and gasps fill the room as the two of you taste your respective sexual organs. Truthfully, if you'd really wanted to go hard on her you could have — you've mostly left her clit alone, and the few times you've gone near it she's nearly lost strength in her legs. More than once you can tell you're pushing her to the brink before she's ready, so you pull back and simply allow her to focus on pleasing you.

Then she gives you reason to regret your complacency. Without warning she slams her head down all the way down to your thighs, swallowing the entirety of your sizeable cock at once. Your hips jerk in surprise, and to your shock not even that proves to be too much for her. Her throat quivers and spasms around you for a good ten seconds before she finally comes up with a gasp.

"You…!" You manage to say as your cock surges with pleasure, simultaneously impressed and chagrined. "You've been practicing, I see."

"Mother still possesses many tools used by her old dojo." She answers, clearly proud of herself. "I have saved my chastity for you, but there are other ways to pleasure a monster."

"Apparently." You reply, grinning at her.

She returns the grin, rising off of you to end the sixty-nine and lower herself into a cowgirl position over you. "Still, now that the surprise is out of the way… I don't think I can wait any longer."

She reaches out to grasp one of your hands, twining her fingers with yours, then lifts her hips slightly and lines your cock up with her maidenhood with her free hand. "I love you, mama." When was the last time she called you that? "More than I can ever express. I… I know you don't need me to protect you. I know you're far stronger than I am, and you may always be so. But… I promise you, that no matter what happens, I will make sure you are happy and safe."

A few tears sting your eyes, which you manage to blink away. "Some might mistake that for a marriage proposal, sweetheart."

"Perhaps they would not be mistaken." Your daughter answers… then she lowers herself around you, and once more incestuous bliss dominates your mind.


Ava's insides are tighter than Zaphi's, no doubt thanks to her more muscular body. In fact, it wouldn't surprise you if she knows exercises designed to prepare her muscles for this specific activity — Ju does, and Ava can be persuasive when she wants to learn some new technique.

Much like her sister, Ava's hymen proves no real obstacle. With some struggle she forces herself down your shaft, biting her lower lip with arousal and determination as you spread parts of her that have never been spread before.

It's almost hypnotic to watch her at work. Her well-toned abs squirm and spasm as she twists and pushes you deeper into her, her breasts jiggle and bounce as her breath hitches with every centimeter of you she manages to take.

"A… ah!" She yelps as she manages to slide down the last few inches all at once. "T-there. Just… give me a moment, please. To catch my breath."

"Of course, sweetie." You reach up with your free hand to caress her cheek, and she leans into the motion, closing her eyes as she does so. "I love you too, by the way."

She snorts in laughter, her eyes opening once more. "I assumed as much."

"Hm. I don't think you believe me. Come here, brat." Your hand snakes from her cheek to the nape of her neck and you pull her into a kiss. Surprise gives way to delight on her end, and she melts into the embrace easily. Her breasts, similar in size to your own, press against yours, your nipples dancing along her own and sending trills of electric pleasure straight to your spine.

There's something wonderful about being inside her mouth and pussy at once. Her inner wet warmth covers your cock and tongue, and for a split second it feels as if everything not inside her simply disappears from your senses. You're left with only the playful wrestling of her tongue against yours and the rhythmic pulsing tightness of her innermost walls caressing your member.

That latter feeling intensifies tenfold when she decides she's gotten used to you, lifting her hips and sliding them back down as she fucks you in earnest while still locked in a loving kiss. If you hadn't felt her maidenhead break against you you'd almost doubt her earlier assertion that she didn't practice using her lower lips before — the way she moves her hips is hardly expert, but she's still got skill to match her enthusiasm.

Again and again her hips rise and slap back down against your own, again and again your cock presses against the entrance of your daughter's womb, tantalizingly close to filling Avariel with the selfsame seed that brought her into being. That thought seizes your mind like a vice, and soon it's all you can think about — cumming deep in your daughter and filling her to the absolute brim with your motherly seed.

Your hands reach out and grab her as, squeezing her well-sculpted cheeks tightly before pulling her down harder than before. She yelps in surprise, breaking the kiss and pulling back from you.

"M-mama! Eager to finish?" She asks, trying to maintain her composure even as you begin to fuck her actively.

"Eager to fill you so full that you'll be dripping my cum for days." You answer simply, sincerely, and you can tell that thought is as appealing to her as it is to you by the fact that she intensifies her own efforts in response.

Your breathing becomes ragged and desperate in unison as the two of you push one another and yourselves towards your inevitable climaxes. Sure enough, the dam once more begins to crack as pleasure builds in your shaft. Ava's legs begin to quiver and shake all at once before her entire body seizes atop your own, her orgasm as powerful as it is sudden.

The sudden tightness around your cock shatters the dam entirely and you eject a veritable of geyser of motherly seed deep into your daughter's unprotected womb, reveling in the knowledge that your cum will be the first to fill every corner of her womanhood even as the pleasure of another incestuous orgasm floods your senses.

--

Ava falls asleep atop you, breathing softly and rhythmically even in slumber. "Martial artists." You mutter as you reach around her to pulse Plan Better into her womb with some regret. As much as you agree with Sybil, you'd also absolutely love to see your daughter's bellies swell with their sisters that you feel tempted to let happen. Something to look forward to in the future, you suppose.

Carefully, you move Ava next to Zaphi, leaving just enough room for yourself between them, before wiping down once more and lying in your prepared spot. Planting a more-than-maternal kiss on both of their lips and pulling them close, you close your eyes and drift off into a truly satisfied sleep…


You dream of caring for a garden. It begins with only a few little sprouts, but soon blossoms into a massive floral monument to your love for all within it. At your touch, every flower spreads its pollen elsewhere throughout the garden, expanding it's domain until everywhere you look you're surrounded by flowers.

You lie in your garden and smile, knowing that you have found where you truly belong.

--

…what a weird dream. Maybe you've been helping little Luna in her own garden a little too much, because there's surely no deeper symbolism behind your inner dream-thoughts. Everyone knows dreams don't mean anything, after all.

You yawn and stretch, pausing as you accidentally brush against a bare breast, making its red-headed owner mewl in simultaneous annoyance and delight. A motherly warmth spreads through your chest at the sight of your eldest daughter sleeping peacefully beside you, and you lean down to press your lips against hers for a long moment.

Zaphi mumbles something incoherent in her sleep as you turn to repeat the process with her younger sister. Ava struggles a bit as she senses someone intruding in her personal space, but stops almost as suddenly as she began, her nose twitching a little. Did… did she just recognize you by smell while she slept?

You're not sure how to feel about that. Fenri is one thing, but if you smell strong enough that a non-canine can recognize you even in slumber…

After tentatively sniffing yourself to determine whether you need to take better baths (you don't think you smell anything, but…) you pull yourself free from your bed, which is much harder than it sounds. Two pairs of unconscious arms attempt to snatch you reflexively, but you've had plenty of experience dodging your sleeping daughters' attempts to sleep in with you by now and slip free.

You're… not really sure what to do right now. Part of your feels complete, like you've accomplished everything you could have ever wanted now that you've found a puzzle piece you didn't know was missing.

"Morning, mama." Mei pokes her head around the corner from the kitchen, skillfully tending a skillet full of eggs without even looking at it. "Sleep well?"

"Yeah." You say, a little dumbly. Now that you're aware of your daughters' feelings you can see the unspoken question in her eyes clear as day. "We… it was nice."

"Good." She smiles happily. "They've been looking forward to it for a long time, you know."

"I do." You cough guiltily as you slide into the kitchen to help out. She gestures towards another skillet, this one with heaps of bacon on it, and you tend to it obediently. Meimei all but owns the kitchen now, after all. "Um, is there an order for the rest of you, or…?"

"No." Mei shakes her head, still fairly cheerful as she flips the eggs. "Only Ava and Zaphi really cared about the order of things. I think as long as you don't leave anyone waiting too long everything will be fine."

Another unspoken statement, this time being 'don't leave me waiting too long, mama.' "Is there anything you want? For your first time, I mean." Goddess, this is a little awkward.

"I want a date." She replies easily. "To… a restaurant. Doesn't matter which one."

"A date, then. I'll find somewhere nice. Mei, sweetie?"

"Yes, mama?"

"…do I smell?"

She briefly pauses and looks at you in confusion. "…no?"

"Good. Thanks, sweetheart. I love you."

Mei hums happily in response and the two of you work together in silence, filling out the many, many plates of your family as they filter into the kitchen.

Your heart swells at the sight of so many of your loved ones in one place. Sure, it's something you see every day, but after that dream last night… well, it just feels more right, now. Every face, child, teen, or adult, has a smile on it, a smile born of a sense of belonging and family that you never had before your Fall.

Every face except for one, that is. Zaphkiel has a noticeable pout despite your lovemaking last night, glaring at her not-pregnant belly. "You must have told her." She mumbles to her neighbor.

"I did no such thing. I told you it wouldn't work." Ava replies next to her as you spoon a healthy helping of breakfast onto her plate.

You chuckle softly as you ruffle your pouting daughter's hair and stack her own plate. "It was a nice try, Zaphi, but I'm afraid you're about four-hundred years too young to pull one over on me."

She attempts to glare at you in response, but it's impossible for her to hide the love in her eyes. You can almost swear you can make out hearts in her pupils.


Breakfast is mostly uneventful, though you do notice more amorous stares on you than usual. Notice being the operative word, of course — your older girls were always looking at you like this, but you managed to block the realization out before.

Tellingly, you can see a spark of those selfsame gazes in a couple of the younger girls' eyes too. Io's eyes, in particular, could bore a hole through solid steel. "Alright, girls. Oldest stay for a minute, while the rest of you go outside an play. Yes, you count among the youngest, Io. And you, Vati."

Once the groups have been divided, you address your eldest daughters once more. "Alright. Since apparently some of you are under the impression you can skirt my rules—" Zaphi doesn't look guilty so much as upset. "—we're going to go over exactly what you need to do if you want children from me."

"You need to be out and about for at least a week. I don't care where you go or what you do — as long as you aren't doing anything terrible, of course, but I trust you to know better than to do that — but you need to find something. If you want help, your mothers and I can point you in a direction."

Tianshi raises a hand and you nod to her. "What if I've already done that?"

You blink, then remember. "Oh, right. Your master. You've been visiting her often?" She nods in affirmation. "If I speak with her and she can confirm that you've been with her consistently and for long enough then I'll accept it."

"What?!" Zaphi shrieks while Tia lowers her hand with a smug look on her face. "That's not fair!"

"How is it not fair?" You ask.

"Well… I mean…" She mutters and mumbles, but can't come up with a good answer.

"I've been visiting my friends a lot, mama." Soniel adds, a malevolent twinkle in her eye as she contributes to tormenting her eldest sister. "Doesn't that count too?"

"I suppose it does…" You nod. Zaphi looks positively horrified at the realization that she's far behind her sisters already, sinking back into her seat as she contemplates how to catch up.

"Anyone else?" Nobody answers, so you nod. "Alright. That's Soniel and Tianshi exempt — on the condition your master gets in touch with me, Tia. And stop teasing poor Zaphi or I'll change my mind. Oh, and Lia obviously has already gotten started on her journey."

After some time, a few of the girls seem to decide what they want to do.

"…mother said there's a university in Skask?" Zaphi asks you, and you nod.

"I know the Headmistress there. I'm sure we can get you in for a few classes. Who knows, Zaphi, you might find you like it more than you expect." The look on her face says she doesn't believe you, but ah well. She'll learn.

"Do they teach art as well?" Mary asks, and Zaphi looks noticeably happier at the thought that her sister might be joining her.

"I don't know, but I can find out. If not, I'm sure there are artists who would love to have an apprentice of your caliber, Mary."

"I would like to find a dojo." Ava says. "Mother has agreed to introduce me to some people who can help."

Mei shrugs. "I'll be here for a while, I think. I'll let you know if I figure something out."

Sera looks lost. "I… don't know. I think I will wander for a while when I do leave."

"Well, none of you have to leave right away, and you're always welcome to come back for a visit. I'm not kicking you out and I never will." You assure them. "Now come give me a hug."

Group hugs are nice, especially now that you no longer have to ignore how certain parts of your children feel against your body. "I love you, girls. Never forget that, even when I'm not around to tell you."


Time passes by in the blink of an eye as your homestead buzzes with activity and energy. None of your other daughters make a pass at you quite yet, apparently either content to wait for a suitably romantic moment or wanting to align their first time with their journey's end. You do slake your lusts with their mothers in the meantime, of course. It wouldn't do to leave any of your harem unsatisfied.

Your weekly meeting with your 'sister in madness' is a brief one. The wyldebeast seems distracted, and when you question her on it she replies that she is seeking a way to return light to Millie's eyes. You wish her luck and inform her you'd be happy to help, and are rewarded with another awkward hug with the Eldritch.

A few days into the week sees the coming of an event that you've been through many times now, but which still sees your heart palpitating in raw terror. Marin and Ulfhild each give birth to a single, beautiful Fallen child. Funnily enough, they go into labor at about the same time, making for an all new sort of worried-sire hell you have to experience as you attend both of them feverishly.

Thankfully, both of them are hardy Northern women, and the births go relatively swimmingly. Marin looks at her daughter with palpable awe and adoration, then up at you. "We made this little angel?"

"We did." You confirm, reaching down and rubbing the girl's cheek. The infant turns her head in response, suckling reflexively. "Hungry already, too."

Marin laughs. "I, um, had some names picked out…"


Merin rattles off a list of names, some of which you recognize. "Brynhildr? Isn't she a valkyrie?"

"They're all valkyries." Merin says with a blush.

"She's always adored them." Ulfhild comments as she holds her own daughter. "She used to name her toy swords after them, too."

"I was six!"

You smile, happy to have learned another embarrassingly cute tidbit about one of your wives. You look down once more at Merin's daughter, taking in the sight of her blonde hair and four white wings… wait, four?

"Huh." Merin says as she looks at the girl's back after you point that detail out. "Four. Guess she takes after you, love."

Ulfhild's daughter is more in-line with the majority of your brood, with a tuft of white hair and a single pair of white wings. Curiously, her ears are almost elfin, but not quite. There's a sort of fierce energy to the child even now, a sort of indescribable power to her that you can't quite place.

"This one will be trouble, I think." Ulfhild chuckles, nuzzling the girl with her cheek. "Like you." She shoots Merin a look. "This time I will find her an outlet early."

You turn back to the older child. "I think I liked Brynhildr." Merin practically glows as she repeats the name, staring at her daughter lovingly.

"No need to pick for this one." Ulfhild assures you, though you catch a mischievous glint in her eyes. "I've already got a name. Merin."

Merin's glowing smile disappears and she looks up sharply, ready to protest, only to see her mother's delighted grin. "Kidding, of course. One Merin was more than enough. I think Sigrun sounds perfect, don't you agree?"

You do, and so Bryn and Sigrun are welcomed into your family with as much love as their sisters before them.


Zaphkiel can scarcely wait to leave on her journey, but she also doesn't want to leave your side. Truly, being Zaphkiel is suffering. Eventually she, along with her twin and Avariel, manage to work up the will and make arrangements to leave. You can't help tearing up despite yourself as you drop them off at their respective destinations, promising to keep in touch via Soniel's bracelet as often as possible.

Little Bryn and Sigrun grow up as quickly as the second generation did, and in no time they're making little nuisances of themselves.

There will never be any doubt as to whose child Bryn is. More than once you catch the little monster trying to lift her mother's sword, and worse — somehow she's also already showing some of Merin's monstrous strength, meaning she actually gets some traction even as a toddler.

Sigrun, on the other hand, has discovered that she can get attention by throwing things at whoever she wants it from. This isn't so bad at first, but when she starts grabbing rocks… well, it's a habit you're working hard to break her from.

The oldest of the second generation are getting firmly into their teenage years. Their gazes become less daughterly and more… devil-daughterly, and you feel distinctly like a cow being sized up for slaughter more than once.

Ophelia, at least, keeps the others relatively in line as she blossoms into a motherly figure to match her attitude. She's beginning to realize how to manipulate the others into behaving instead of just demanding it, probably due to Soniel's influence. Io is… well, Io. Her little headbutts are distinctly more amorously affectionate now, though she still seems absolutely scandalized when you rub her horns. Camiel has taken to watching over Bryn and Sigrun, apparently quite enamored with their surprising strength. You… kind of worry about what might result from that.

Luna and Zuriel are as affectionate a pair of twins as your eldest daughters. It's almost hard to believe that they were the Twin Terrors not so long ago, as Luna's manic energy has almost entirely been diverted to her burgeoning flowerbeds and Zuriel has stopped bottling up her wrath and releasing it all at once. A common and heartwarming sight on the homestead nowadays is of Fenri covered in flowers and snuggled up beside her daughters near their garden, her tail wagging happily all the while.

Vati is still the model daughter Fi always wanted, having been given every opportunity for luxury and education her mother was unable to access… though both you and Fi are aware that she has a fondness for sharp implements that she thinks she's hiding from her mother. You decide to allow her to believe she's keeping a secret, since she seems to think it's fun to find new hiding spots. The highlight of her week is still when she receives letters from her grandparents.

The Triplets… well, they're still brats, especially to Ju's older daughters. While they still outclass the triplets skill-wise, the younger girls' combined efforts and higher Tier is making their older sisters put real effort into staying ahead of them nowadays. Ju herself comments that she's glad you, and by extension they, aren't full-on devils. "They'd be a walking catastrophe otherwise," she notes.

Fiona isn't quite a teenager yet, but from the look in her eyes adolescence has hit her all the same. The little elfin Fallen somehow contrives to be wherever you are as often as possible, though to your surprise she doesn't really enjoy being on the receiving end of that from you. One night, you hear a downright radiant singing voice and happen upon Fiona singing and dancing beneath the moonlight. The shriek of embarrassment from her when she realized you were there woke half the household.


Your and Eluvi's brood are all happy and healthy. Kira has taken to her new fondness for fashion with aplomb, constantly asking you to bring back new clothes and designs. She's even begun making her own in her spare time, though she's not confident enough to show them off yet. Remi is as she ever was, constantly craving affection from you but refusing to admit as much. You've at least caught on to her game by now, and lavish her with kisses and hugs despite her very vocal protests. Akael has matured out of her 'princess knight' phase and now insists that she's a Knightly Princess, which is apparently completely different.

Adalinda is still shy, but no longer cripplingly so. Of all your daughters, she looks the most like you — if you ignore the draconic bits at least. She seems to radiate an aura that makes others want to dote on her, born of a curious mix of vulnerability and adorableness that ensures she's never without someone by her side. Ivule looks a bit less like a clone of her sire as she grows up, though she's still a miniature Eluvi nonetheless. She has taken to bribing you and anyone else who will play along with kisses and cuddles in exchange for new shiny things for her hoard.

Kali… you have some trouble with Kali. More than once you wake up to her outright biting you, and a curiously pleasant drowsiness sets in wherever she does. To her credit, she's always apologetic when she realizes what she did, and honestly can't seem to help herself. It isn't until you consult Ilyen that you find the cause.

"She's entering puberty." The maid-dragon shrugs. "And, ah… claiming you." She adds with a little embarrassment.

You frown. "Eluvi never mentioned anything about that."

"She wouldn't." Ilyen nods as if it were a well-known fact. "Little Kaliyah is closer to a dragon than a kobold, yes? Draconic puberty entails a buildup of elemental energy that must be released. Full dragons usually breathe it out, to my understanding, but those of us with lesser power emit it from our claws or fangs, typically."

"Hence the biting." You nod along, grasping the idea. "Then the drowsiness… is there a sleep element?" You've never heard of such a thing, but then again you aren't an elemental or dragon yourself.

Ilyen laughs, shaking her head. "No, no. I assume Kaliyah takes after you, Ariel — it's a venom, if I were to guess. Soporific in nature, but still a venom."

"I see. And her 'claiming' me means what I think it means?"

"She's claiming you as a mate, yes." Ilyen blushes once more. "Or part of her hoard, in a way. It is… not unknown for younger, more powerful scalekin to claim their mothers in such a manner. She doesn't necessarily mean anything by it — I doubt she realizes the significance of the action and is merely acting on instinct. Though… I would watch her, just to be safe. We scalekin can be possessive."


Ilyen has her own conflict with her daughter, which stems from how Valariel is now capable of handling much of the maidwork on her own instead of simply assisting her mother. The two gently disagree on how much work is appropriate for each of them, with Ilyen insisting that 90% of the chores should be handled by herself and Val arguing that her mother should only be doing 60% instead.

It's… a strange argument, though you do make an adorable discovery during the week. "What do you hoard now, by the way?"

Ilyen freezes, looking at you nervously. "H-hoard? I possess no hoard. I surrendered it all, remember?"

"I know where it is!" Val says, seizing the opportunity to blackmail her mother. "I can show it to you… unless the chore ratio is adjusted?"

Ilyen hesitates for too long and you are led to one of the spare closets of the homestead, Ilyen trailing and begging her daughter not to reveal her secret the entire time. Valariel is a merciless young devil, however, and you are shown…

A collection of drawings and little notes. Enshrined in a place of honor with a custom-made wooden frame (you recognize Asteria's work instantly) is a child's finger painting of Ilyen with a smaller maid figure beside it — Valariel herself, you surmise. The rest of the hoard isn't all Valariel's work, but instead a collection from all of your children — thank you's and the like for cleaning up after their various messes.

"That's adorable." You breathe even as Ilyen turns redder than your other pet dragonling.


Estelle has mostly gotten her ridiculous magic power under control. She can now cast spells without outright destroying things accidentally, though she still possesses a bit too much oomph to safely practice near some of the younger girls. While she's surprisingly calm at her sister's departure, you notice a general gloom follows her in Zaphi and Mary's absence that doesn't disappear until you have them communicate to her through Soniel's bracelet.

Signali is a little menace, which you suppose is to be expected of someone who is part slime. Now that she has ascertained her hardiness and found it to be near-unmatched, she's found other ways to entertain herself — namely by developing mimicry abilities similar to her mother's. This wouldn't be an issue, except for the fact that she has begun to develop the slime colors, which exacerbate certain aspects of her personality… and Green Signali is a living nightmare, a speedy little monster who gets into more messes than most of your other children combined. You have to extract a promise from her that she won't use that color more than once every few days.


You sigh as you look out at the world beyond your homestead, a deep feeling of absence having taken root since your daughters departed.

"You did the right thing." Asteria says, pulling up a chair beside you. "It is not good for children to stay in their nest forever."

"I know." You pout, puffing out your cheeks. "But I still hate it. Lia was bad enough."

She laughs, reaching out to rub your back with a massive hand. "I know how you feel. It is a pain every parent experiences sooner or later."

You grumble and lean into her massive pillows as she lays an arm over your shoulder. "Hate it." You repeat as you notice Io peaking from around a tree and scribbling something in one of her little notebooks she stalwartly refuses to let you see.

The minotaur runs her hand through your hair affectionately as a pair of beating wings catches your attention, signaling the arrival of your trusty mailbird.

"Special delivery!" Shëo calls out cheerfully as she lands a few feet from you, raising a wing in salute. "They paid a pretty penny for it, too. If you don't mind signing for it…"

You do so and retrieve the letter from its place on her foot as she looks around the homestead. "I swear you've gotta have lagomorphan blood in you, Ariel. There's at least five more kids each time I come here."

"Lagomorphan?" You ask as you open the letter, unfamiliar with the term.

"Rabbit women." Asteria answers for the harpy.

So she's saying you fuck like a rabbit? Rude! True, but rude.

The letter itself is… weird. So weird you're pretty sure you know who wrote it before you even get a few words in, even though you've never read her writing before.

You said you would help and I would like to ask you to help

I need a unique item it is guarded and I cannot get it alone

Clarification I could get it alone but Millie will not let me go alone she says it is too dangerous I disagree but she will not stop asking me to ask you

I am in trouble now apparently you do not need to speak words as you write them I did not know this

Please respond soon I have paid the bird she should fly fast I did not steal the money I promise Millie says that is important to tell you

Also bring your mates Millie says two people is not enough I disagreed but she insists

I forgot not to say that out loud please hurry