Author's note:
The following chapter was commissioned. If you'd like to commission a story of your own (or the chapter to an existing story), details are on my profile.
Responses:
to KongKing94: the canon of Queen's Blade is being used as a rough template for the direction, both literally and metaphorically, that we and the characters go. We don't plan on sticking to it completely, though, like how Tomoe, Shizuka, and Leina emerged from Amara as a group rather than separate. Then, of course, there's the ongoing raid on the village by Pathfinder demons. Speaking of which...
to Thunder Dragon: I can most definitely guarantee that there will be both ecchi stuff and Pathfinder stuff in the following chapter, even simultaneously at times.
With a drooling snarl, the nabasu spread its wings and leapt at Rowin, specifically his legs. Rowin shuffled aside and blocked its sweeping claws with his longsword, his free hand hastily undoing a pouch in his belt.
As if it were the starting horn, the cohort of demons surrounding the group all attacked together. Flaming brimorak swords and smelly schir pole weapons cast flickering light and set the shadows on the ground all a flutter, as miserable dretches were booted and battered into sallying forth.
Rowin drew a vial from his belt while flourishing at the nabasu. When it spread its wings and took to the air, he whirled away from the black ray of energy lancing from its fingers.
"Leina!"
His throw was true. Leina slashed the vial out of the air, splattering the holy water on her sword. As the nabasu landed, Rowin waved another vial in front of Echidna's pet underwear. Echidna gave him a raised eyebrow and a knowing smile as her snake snapped its mouth around the vial.
"Holy water," he said, before pushing her aside as the nabasu snapped its jaws at her.
"I said no eating the women!" whined the red-skinned demon who, by default, must have been 'Son' to the blue one's 'Father'.
The nabasu swept its wing and deflected a thrust aimed at its heart. "Thorry."
"Hey, Shizuka!" Rowin called. "...Shizuka?"
He sidestepped the nabasu, sliced the back of its long leg, and did a quick head count of his allies. Leina was struggling against 'Son', receiving no amount of smug condescension from the demon as he parried and nicked her skin with his scimitar. She received some help from Nowa; the half-elf fended off a pack of dretches with her weighted staff, smacking a claw that went for a cheap shot at Leina's unarmored (and rather lovely) thighs. 'Son' seemed to be yelling at the dretches for this; from the look of his father and their banter earlier, Rowin had to guess that the red-faced brat was a cambion and his daddy an incubus.
At Leina's back, Tomoe's glowing sword got tangled up in the halberds of a pair of schir, the two demons twisting it from her grip while a gaggle of dretches charged her from between the tall creatures. They failed to realize that Tomoe had a trick up her sleeve, literally, which ended with them exploding into bits.
Alleyne was a whirlwind with her stone-ended staff, rotating around and around like a dervish and crushing any demon bones fool enough to come within six feet of her. One uppity schir broke the rules of the game by trying to parry the tip of her weapon into the ground. Alleyne simply braced on her staff like a pole-pushing gondolier-
"Tornado Strike!"
-and gave the demon a roundhouse to the face.
Zara was on the offensive, leaving the corpse of a dretch behind with no face. Her sword grew to the size of a battering ram and chopped through three brimoraks with one swing, their flaming swords smashed aside by sheer force of Zara's fury. Her wolf was running alongside her, tearing into the throat of a dretch who'd been too slow to realize the speed of the approaching danger.
Echidna was right behind Rowin, already surrounded by agonized cries and shrieks as the holy water on her weapon turned demonic innards into blackened mush. She sounded like she was winning, to no surprise of Rowin's.
So, where had Shizuka run off to? She didn't seem the type to jump ship.
The question had to wait as the nabasu stumbled on its bad leg. Rowin seized the moment and went for a decapitating strike. He saw the nabasu's eyes flash, pulled his strike for a parry, but realized too late what was actually coming.
Baleful green light blazed from the nabasu's hungry eyes. Rowin had no time to shout a warning to Echidna or anyone else. He was bathed in the nabasu's life-stealing gaze and immediately felt himself grow weaker, his sword and mail grow heavier. The nabasu's claw smashed him aside, his chainmail blunting its nails but not its strength. It swept its gaze on the rest of Rowin's war party, one by one sapping the girls of their strength and vitality. Lying against a pile of what he hoped was dirt, Rowin silently prayed that none of them died from this.
Zara's onslaught stumbled to a halt, as did her Wolf's. Alleyne's thrust dipped and caught a schir in the chest instead of the throat. When the evil light shone on Leina's group, Tomoe's sword flashed purple but Tomoe herself groaned visibly. Nowa stumbled mid-swing and was knocked prone by a pair of dretches rushing her. Only Leina remained unaffected as she hammered at the cambion's defenses; all that unconscious swimming and weary travelling belied a hardy fortitude, even if her fighting prowess was the least of any human present.
The nabasu finished its lighthouse rotation and returned its attention to Rowin. Rowin stood and drew his throwing knife. The nabasu came at him, its long tongue swirling and its hunched grey body shivering in anticipation. Its appetizer had only made it hungrier. Rowin, for his part, stood and made ready to throw, but stepped on his own white coat and twisted himself into falling down again. His knife haphazardly slipped from his fingers and spun away through the air.
Rowin smiled as he landed in a heap. His prediction proved true when he heard the nabasu's pained roar.
Rolling to his knees and standing up, Rowin soon spotted his knife: embedded in the eye socket of the nabasu. Its long, groping fingers couldn't fully close around the knife's hilt. Its pain only doubled when Rowin charged the demon, his sword blade-up, and ran it through the heart. The nabasu's body seized up in pain but it didn't die; they were tough creatures by default. Rowin pulled his dagger out of its eye and stabbed the other one, blinding it. Its claws came crashing down on his mailed shoulder.
Another wave of weakness struck Rowin. He doubled over, his weapons slipping from his grip. The nabasu's long fingers wrapped around his wrists, pulling him spread-eagle. He saw the vile wound on the nabasu's face knit itself from its vampiric touch, its eyeball restored and glaring at him past its smooth snout with murder in its pupil. Its jaws snapped forward and bit down on Rowin's left arm. Once again, his chainmail held, but that didn't stop the nabasu from crushing his muscle.
Rowin had held it together thus far, but his cool-headed mask shattered like glass when the nabasu chomped on him. He was sleep-deprived and weary and had already strayed near death with one life-sucking ne'er-do-well that day, and now he was in pain from a demon who'd tried to take one of his four favorite limbs for supper. Not to mention, its breath smelled like the rot-filled water in a vase of long-dead flowers, and its mouth and nostrils were right next to his face. He could taste its breath when his cry of pain was done.
It was at this moment that Rowin decided that, caution be damned, he'd had enough.
Pursing his lips, and no doubt with a murderous look of his own, Rowin whipped his feet up to Finnean's hilt, still run through the demon's chest. He screamed again as he kicked down, but it worked: the hilt came down, the tip came up, and the edge ripped through the demon's shoulder and burst free in a shower of foul-smelling gore. The nabasu roared even louder this time, its cry releasing its jaws from Rowin's arm. Rowin fell on his back, caught Finnean in his good hand, and impaled the nabasu through the jaw. He thrust so hard that the force popped his dagger out of its eye socket.
The nabasu's husk sagged forward, but Rowin put his feet up and kicked it back, tearing his sword free. He rolled backwards to his feet, flipped his coat out of his face, stowed his knife, and directed his newfound bad mood at the father-son duo. The comely red demon was holding Tomoe's arms behind her back while he and 'Father' ran their tongues along opposite sides of Tomoe's crying face.
"C'mere, Blue Balls," Rowin called, beckoning with his blade. "I just want to take a little off the top."
'Father' turned to the insult, leaving his son to release Tomoe when Leina swung at his leg. The incubus didn't seem to notice. He was staring at Rowin with inquisitive intent, before realization blossomed on his sickeningly handsome features.
"Oh-ho!" he exclaimed mirthfully. "Now I know what we're doing here, why the portal opened to this dismal little backwater." He sarcastically saluted Rowin with one hand while blocking Tomoe's attack of opportunity with his scimitar. His son's groping tail ensured she was suitably distracted from a follow-up.
"Good news, Knight-Commander," he sneered. "Your-"
CLANG!
Finnean met scimitar and sparks flew from the mix of magics. 'Father' kicked back and jumped away from Rowin's follow-up slash, his wings flapping frantically to get himself in the air.
"The Slayer of Baphomet thinks I'm worth his time?" 'Father' called mockingly. "His terrible wrath?"
His voice was lost on the women present, all of them preoccupied with their own battles. The holy water that Rowin had distributed was drying out, less a poultice or an oil than a spit-shine, and the blades it had coated now cut less deep than they had before. Echidna's strikes were more discriminate as her serpentine sword failed to fell demons through pain and agony of sizzling demon flesh. Zara was beginning to tire as the mass of her size-changing sword began to wear on her weary body. Tomoe struggled to land a blow on 'Son' and his three-dimensional attacks; he struck higher and faster than unwinged adversaries could. Leina had found more success against the swarms of dretches than she had the red-skinned gash-hound lusting after her body, but even she began to struggle as the thinning holy water on her sword left her high and dry. She was far from strong enough to bisect the schir whose polearm she managed to snake past.
Alleyne and Nowa fared little better. They'd found their way to each other, fighting back-to-back as schirs began to leave cuts on their bodies with their polearms, and the heat from the brimorak blades blinded them with their own sweat. They were forced to separate when two of the brimoraks belched magma-like blood at them, leaving the two sweaty elves isolated.
So, only one among Rowin's number heard 'Father' and his proclamation, even as she slit the throat of a schir who thought it was safe to drop out of sight behind a smoldering debris pile.
Rowin, for his part, wiped some sweat from his brow and pulled his cutlass, placing its chilling blade against his forehead. He bit through the pain he felt in his left arm; the nabasu had probably broken something. With his other hand, though, he let go of Finnean and whipped his throwing knife from its scabbard. 'Father' recoiled when he saw the metal glint, which meant his handsome nose was struck by the hilt instead of the tip. The incubus recoiled again, this time in pain, as the knife dropped back to the ground.
'Father' felt demon blood flowing from his broken nose; Rowin could see it in his expression. No man liked getting his nose broken, not even a demon-man.
"That's going to cost you, Commander," snarled 'Father'.
Rowin's cutlass dipped. He felt every bit as tired as his sweat and heavy breathing made him look. "Then why don't you quit your babbling and come down here to collect?"
From the way the incubus scowled, Rowin was sure he'd try.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
Far off, in the heart of the Swamp, a massive orb floated before a burning flame. The visage of a face, the Swamp-Witch, watched as her ally's incubus began to change. Its slender muscles bulged, growing to the shape of stones on its arms and legs. Dark stubble sprouted as its jaw grew more square and wide. Two new, equally thick arms, with hands and needle-like claws at the fingertips, pushed from its boulder-like shoulders. Bumps appeared all over the demon's skin; glowing purple crystals pushed through. The demon's body was soon covered in them. The cabin on which it stood, already swaying from the carnage and flames that wracked the village, collapsed under the sudden new weight. This was the incubus's signal to dive, roaring at the blonde human who taunted it.
Off in the Blood Springs, the Swamp Witch's minions relaxed in one of the heated pink pools and watched the fight from a smaller orb. They were nude, their nipples and quims hidden only by the waters they bathed in. The most royal of them was receiving a massage from her slavering, sun-kissed servant.
"Oooo, look at all that meat," Sekmeti panted, her eyes tracking the incubus's engorged biceps as they flexed and swung at the human.
"Sekmeti, stop drooling," Menace said.
Sekmeti pursed her lips. "Sorry, Princess."
Melona scoffed. "No, you're not."
"I'm surprised, Sekmeti," Menace remarked, watching the incubus as it chased Rowin around the small clearing that had opened amidst the fighting. Neither the demons nor the women seemed keen on stepping in the way, to the point where the remaining schirs and dretches would back off and let the women advance when pushed too far. The brimoraks, though, never gave ground, which is why so few of them remained.
"Hm?" The mummy-girl's big, bandaged cat ears twitched atop her head, sending a wave through her black, waist-length hair. "Surprised at what, Princess?"
Menace moaned as Sekmeti worked a knot out of her shoulder. "Right there, yes… Ah, you seemed keen on my future consort."
"He's wearing more clothes than the big one," Sekmeti said. "You should fix that, Princess."
"Wait," Melona said with a skeptical smirk. 'Consort'? Who'd want to consort with a bag of dust?"
"More than would want a pile of pink snot!" Sekmeti retorted feistily.
Melona rose from the water. "What did you call me, you catty little bitch?!"
"Oh, wow!" Menace exclaimed, oblivious to it all. She stood and walked closer to the orb, pink waterfalls turning to drizzles as the blood-water flowed off her breasts and fingers.
"Hey, I was watching, Menace," Melona snarked.
Menace didn't hear. Her future consort was doing something. Rather, they were doing something, as there were now eight of them. They'd retrieved their longsword and dropped their cutlass. Said longsword was glowing like a sun, practically white if not for the green aura that surrounded the blade. The incubus swung at three of the eight and they instantly vanished. The other five jumped at him and one of them cut off one a hand.
"As expected," Menace said proudly. "That man survived my kingdom's greatest pestilent weapon, then defeated the captain of my elite bodyguard. No mere vandal could defeat him."
"And he's so handsome," Sekmeti panted, slithering up alongside Menace to stare at the images of two sexy men, brawling it out, sweating profusely. "Imagine the kind of oil massages those hands can do…"
"Sekmeti, I command you to stop drooling."
Sekmeti clammed up and looked to a nearby boulder. "Excuse me for a moment, Princess."
XXXXXXXXXXXX
The incubus quickly passed its scimitar to another hand and slashed at Rowin again. Rowin jumped to the left and then took a step to the right as the incubus found him amidst his mirror images. Some kind of violet ray shot from another of its hands.
"I'm not usually one for racking up a deficit," Rowin said, less tired than when they'd started, "but sometimes, when it's your last hand of the night…"
His abused left hand sparkled as he splayed his fingers; out popped a tiny rainbow. "You just gotta belieeeeve."
Rowin pirouetted past a glowing, grasping claw, moments before the incubus lost that hand, too. The incubus looked at the two stumps on its arms and screamed.
"Well, now I just feel bad," Rowin said. He twirled Finnean around him, the bright light leaving fan-shaped afterglow in the air. "That's a bunch of demons, two hands, and half a nose so far."
He drew a circle at 'Father'. "Anything else you want me to pay for?"
The incubus roared, took to the air, and began conjuring lighting, fire, rays of energy, wobbling hand-shaped mirages, anything it could think of to throw at the man below.
The incubus growled, then its grimace flipped into a grin. "Not you…"
The purple crystals on its body began to glow. After a moment, Rowin didn't feel any different, which worried him immensely.
A cry from Leina was his second clue to be worried. Leina was contending with 'Son', on her back foot and wobbling upright. Tomoe was completely floored, lying on her side as she panted with… exhaustion? Both she and Leina were blushing.
Not just any old incubus, Finnean remarked.
Rowin ran over to where Tomoe lay, 'Son' backing off through his demon flunkies like the coward he was. The remaining rabble seemed to have grown more passive; all was silent, save for the distant calls of names by survivors and the crackling of flames. In the vicinity, even as the other beautiful warriors fought, the demons they clashed with halted their aggression and settled into defense. Or, so it seemed.
Zara was the first to fall, her arms pinned to the ground as she told Wolf to run. Nowa was hamstrung by a remaining brimorak's blade and dogpiled by a trio of dretches. Alleyene moved to help her but was tackled by 'Son', who wasted no time in choking her with his hands while a gang of demons closed in. Only Echidna seemed to hold her own, but she was caught by the ankle when she tried to leap over a schir. The schir brought her down, but not before she brought her heel down on its face.
"Rowin…"
He looked down at Tomoe. Her mighty sword was on the ground, ignored, its blade's purple glow as bright as Finnean's. Leina glanced over her shoulder at the pair; the demons before her seemed hesitant to try their luck.
"I…" Tomoe was sweating more profusely and blushing harder than any of the others. She looked feverish. "I need… I want… Why… To be violated…"
She threw herself in an unladylike manner upon Rowin's leg, her hands pulling at his belt. They got dangerously close to his groin-
"No!" Tomoe tore her hands away, her gaze drawn to 'Father' in the sky before she tore away again, looking at the ground. "No…"
Rowin sheathed his weapon and reached down, offering a hand. When Tomoe looked at him again, her eyes widened. "Rowin, you're glowing…!"
He shrugged and smiled. "Must be my sunny disposition. Don't let Daddy up there get in your head." He shook his offered hand in front of her. "Come on, stand with me. He's got to come down some time."
Rowin saw the change in Tomoe's expression. That's how he knew 'Father' was swooping down behind him, no doubt angling for an attack. Rowin yanked Tomoe to her feet but slipped on awkward footing… which just so happened to jam the toe of his boot under her sword and kick it up in front of her. Tomoe caught it and its crackling aura carved a deep gash down the muscular torso of 'Father'.
Tomoe froze, staring at the demon's body, his muscles, even as he pulled her in front of Rowin's flanking attack. Rowin pulled his thrust and the incubus thrust a hand at Rowin. Rowin flew back like he'd been blasted by an explosion, landing prone a good twenty feet back.
'Father' puffed up his chest, causing more blood to spurt from his wound. "Son, I think it's time to leave. Round up the women!"
Like a bad rash, 'Son' popped back up, his large hand throwing Zara's hood back to caress her face. "Finally."
Rowin shakily sat up, cursing his blue cloak under his breath. 'Father' stalked toward him, guiding Tomoe with one hand on her shoulder. Tomoe looked simultaneously nauseous and mesmerized as she was walked towards the fallen Rowin. The incubus passed where Finnean had fallen; Tomoe's own sword slipped from her fingers as she shakily, haltling, reached up to touch 'Father' on his corded pectoral. She looked ready to cry.
Rowin held his hand out again. "Tomoe, you stand with me?"
'Father' merely snickered and looked around, no doubt enjoying watching his demons round up the women. Rowin might've enjoyed seeing Echidna throw a knife through a dretch's eye or a chain with a ball on the end covertly cave in the top of a schir's head. That is, if he wasn't watching Tomoe.
Tomoe's eyes were fixed to the incubus holding her. She was trembling; incubi were good-looking by design and this one literally exuded sexual attraction around it. Her fingers weren't enough; she openly groped the incubus's silky blue skin, memorizing the contours of its chiseled chest.
Rowin shook his hand, still eying his fallen swords. "Tomoe!"
The warrior-priestess was startled into regarding him. As the incubus stood before Rowin and grinned down at the fallen "Knight-Commander", Tomoe weakly moved a hand and touched Rowin's outstretched glove with her finger. She nodded.
"Any last requests?" asked 'Father'.
Rowin thought for a moment. "Can I tell a knock-knock joke?"
The incubus tilted his head and narrowed his eyes. "...Proceed."
Rowin coughed into his wrist; no blood, surprising. "Thank you kindly, sir. Knock, knock."
"Who's there?"
Rowin's lips pursed and he smacked them to keep from laughing. "Them."
"Them who?"
"Maybe you oughta turn around and find out!"
All hell broke loose, at least for the demons. A spray of white liquid blasted 'Father' over the back and made his flesh smoke and sizzle. The purple crystals on the incubus's body cracked all at once. Flying swords and javelins rained down from the sky with lethal precision, skewering the demons that held the women; their wounds exploded from within, blowing their flesh into white powder, followed by the rest of the hellspawns' now-corpses. Shizuka's throwing knives flew at 'Father', but he took them on his wing and shielded his precious body. Tomoe's sword found its way back to her hand by way of a weighted chain; she'd stopped feeling unwell.
"Fall, creature of the pit!" she shouted, and brought her blade down on 'Father'. Her strike shattered his scimitar and bit into his shoulder. Another blade of blinding green struck his right wing off, then his left. Tomoe was about to cleave his head off, but surprisingly, Rowin parried her strike with his cutlass.
"Go help the others," he said. Tomoe simply nodded and left Rowin to his business.
Father reared back and his hand glowed again, only for him to get blasted in the front this time.
"GET AWAY FROM HIM, YOU WRETCH!"
Rowin rendered that hand into a half-hand before glancing behind himself. Laila's big eyes and cute little nose made her psychotic war face all the more unnerving, especially up close.
"I appreciate the timing," Rowin told her, "but I really do need some time alone with him, if you don't mind."
Laila smiled warmly at Rowin. "That's fine." The war face returned as she glared at the incubus. "I know you'll be fine."
After Laila floated away, the incubus had collapsed before Rowin. His front had finished dissolving into primordial soup, his handsome features reduced to a half-decomposed surgical abomination with even his demonic bones exposed along his ribs and arm.
"I hope you appreciate my sincerity," Rowin said, approaching slowly, "when I say-"
The incubus turned and tried to fly, but the tiny stubs where his wings used to be simply wiggled uselessly. His legs were skewered at the hamstrings, then cut off at the knees. Rowin did him the courtesy of removing his decomposed arm, then the other, then finished Tomoe's gouge to shear away a good portion of the demon's torso. The incubus turned back and began speaking; Finnean flickered and left a smile-shaped gouge across a mouth with no more tongue inside it.
"-I need an example."
Rowin stowed his cutlass, grabbed the limbless demon by one of the horns on its face, and began dragging it towards the portal from which it had emerged.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
Shortly thereafter…
"See anything you like, Shizuka?" Rowin asked. The pale ninja was poking and prodding each of the bruises Rowin had collected on his torso. He kept a straight face for each, but winced when she touched the ugly violet stain on his left shoulder.
"Plenty, but it's all the wrong color."
"Speaking of which," Rowin said, noting the tiny cuts on her body, "you should get those washed, maybe doused with some strong drink. Schirs like to gnaw on their weapons; even nicks like those could mean trouble."
"I will, but first I'll work on you." She clapped her hands and started rubbing them together. Her palms were pink when she was done. She placed them on his injured shoulder, staring at the grisly bruising. Rowin hissed and winced but made no objection, even as she pressed the rest of herself against his body.
"Where were you when you got those?" Rowin asked. "Felt pretty rotten to not have you around."
"I stayed out of sight, making sure nothing else tried to fight you," Shizuka said. She put her mouth right next to Rowin's ear. "Feel better?"
Rowin rolled his shoulder and, sure enough, the pain had lessened. "Feels like it. I could probably pull a desperation swing or two like this."
Shizuka smiled, her lavender lips full of teasing intent. "The night's still young. If you like, I could do the rest of you."
"And have it all come back by morning," Echidna commented, striding over to them. Despite all the heavy fighting, the only visible damage she'd taken was some minor scrapes, not even a mark from when the schir had pulled her from the air. "If you want to really feel good, come back to my room."
Her soft breasts pressed to his back. Sandwiched between a wolf and a serpent, a tiny bronze vial intruded upon Rowin's vision.
"You'd be surprised," Echidna cooed, "at what a little snake venom can do."
"Much as I appreciate all the offers, I think my wife will want to patch me up." Rowin slid sideways, leaving the two women to tip forward and press their breasts against each other. However, while Rowin was held up by his angel friend, Laila, Shizuka and Echidna sized each other up.
The two recognized a fellow assassin in the other, from the look in their eyes to the added weight they both felt, knowing it came from weapons and other things they concealed on their person. Their clothes kept their visible weapons from making sound; not a clink or clang would be heard while they moved. However, after each had given the other a little push with their chests, they both recognized a common issue: Rowin had said "wife" in a far less joking tone than before.
So, while Rowin was escorting Laila around to give everyone a holy milk wash, Echidna and Shizuka found their way to Alleyne. The Combat Master had her pupil lying on the ground, and was applying elvish medicine to the nasty burn-cut on the back of Nowa's leg.
Ruu hopped in front of Nowa when the two women approached, his magenta fur blackened from soot.
"Hi, little guy!" Shizuka chirped, bending down. "Aren't you fuzzy!"
Ruu looked at Echidna next. He was startled when Echidna's underwear hissed at him.
Alleyne glared at Echidna. "What do you want?"
"Ooo, so protective," Echidna said smarmily, gesturing to herself and Shizuka. "All we want is a little chat."
"It's not about her," Shizuka added, nodding down at Nowa.
"I'll be fine, Captain," said Nowa, laying her head on the ash-covered earth. "If it's important, you should hear them out."
"You shouldn't make assumptions about people, or their intent, just because they fought alongside you," Alleyne said. "Nowa, you scored a 15."
Nowa groaned. Echidna rolled her eyes. It fell to Shizuka to play mediator.
"Look, we just want to clear something up, and then we'll leave you both alone, okay?"
Alleyne sighed and stood up. "Very well."
They led her to the clearing where the portal had stood. There was no sign of it now, not since Rowin shoved and dragged the enemy leader to its mouth and threw him back inside. Suffice to say, no one was hanging around; the very air had an unsettling aura about it.
"Now," Shizuka said, "what's all this about husband and wife?"
Alleyne was displeased and made no attempt to hide it. "That's it? You pulled me away from Nowa to ask me that? I'm going back."
"Not if you want us to stop asking," Echidna pointed out.
Alleyne paused mid-turn, then reversed that turn. "He's my husband in name only, per the ancient traditions of the forest elves."
"In name only?" Shizuka glanced Rowin's way; he was once again topless and getting a wash of his own in holy milk. "You can lay your hands on all of that, and all you want is a title?"
"My sole priority is Nowa," Alleyne said. "Rowin's priority is obviously Leina. There is no reason I should expect to bear his children or for him to protect me. What does it matter to you?"
"So you do care," Echidna teasingly told.
"Answer me, Echidna."
"I don't come between marriages," Shizuka replied.
"I was hoping to be your mistress," Echidna said.
Alleyne gave her a weirder look than Shizuka did.
"What?" Echidna asked coyly. "You expect me to believe, that you could go another thousand years, without riding that stallion?"
Alleyne turned away for real. "Do what you want with him. It makes no difference to me."
Echidna shook her head, not buying it for a second. "Of course it doesn't."
Alleyne walked away, but both Shizuka and Echidna had caught Alleyne's blush before she could hide it.
"Her 'mistress'?" Shizuka asked.
"Another elf tradition," Echidna informed her with a smile. "In war time, the mistress and wife would take turns using their husband as a rocking chair."
Shizuka looked Rowin's way again, her sharp eyes drinking in those sexy, slender muscles of his before he could cover up again. "That elf is crazy. If he called me his wife, I'd be all over him like that coat, warming him up for Lady Tomoe."
"She doesn't know what she's missing," Echidna said. "Neither does Leina."
"And you do?"
"Do you?"
Lighting seemed to crackle where their gazes met. They once again drifted closer until they were bust-to-bust, literally sizing each other up yet again. Echidna licked her pink lips; Shizuka merely smirked.
"First one to the finish?"
"First one to his finish," Echidna clarified.
"Isn't that Leina's job?"
"You mean, it's not Tomoe's?"
XXXXXXXXXXXX
"So," Hachiel murmured to Laila, "your job will be to watch him. Unless you have anything suspicious to report, you can't return to Heaven until he and Leina reach the capitol."
Laila nodded to the other angel.
"And," Hachiel added, "most importantly, you'll need to strike first if it turns out he is a demon."
Laila nodded less dutifully at that. Not only would she face the prospect of turning on her favorite human and friend, but now she'd have to monitor her use of the Holy Milk Thrower. If she couldn't return to Heaven, she couldn't refill its chamber so readily. As a mere novice, she was far from mastering the abilities that made angels so strong in battle.
After Hachiel departed, bringing up the rear of the angel platoon sent in Laila's wake, Laila floated over to Rowin and Leina. The two were practically leaning on each other; they'd had a too-long day and a too-short sleep. Their eyelids flickered heavily, now that all the adrenaline had worn off.
"I've got a new mission," Laila informed them. "The Head Angel wants me to go with you on your journey to Gainos."
"Glad to hear, but that'll have to wait." Rowin yawned. "Only place I'm going is back to bed."
Leina was too tired to be disgruntled when Echidna slid between the two of them, propping them both up by the waist and indecisive about who she wanted to ogle more.
Author's note:
The plot thiccens. Which thirsty assassin will be the first to claim their mark? Will Laila be forced to Order 66 Rowin? What did the Swamp Witch's servants think of this little field test? How did they know it was going on in the first place? And why was Leina the only one unaffected by the nabasu's life-stealing gaze? Not even Rowin skated by on that one.
If not the answers to these questions, then at the very least, I foresee a stacked MILF weaponsmith in the near future. Finnean might finally have someone to talk to.