Session 60 – Council of War
Moira peeked up over the edge of the bed, just far enough that everything below her bare shoulders was hidden. "What the SHIT?!? You two have been gone for days!"
Sterling's eyes went huge. She tried to curtsy to Luna from where she sat in the bed, but then the sheet started slipping. Her cheeks turned crimson as she scrambled to pull it up to her chin again. "My goddess of Truth Above! You do us unspeakable honor!"
Luna nodded politely to her, but held up one finger as she turned to her wife. "Bebe, how are you bleeding?!?"
"I... I do not know." The awe in Iridatha's voice would have been humorous if we all weren't staring at sparkling golden blood running down from cuts on her Divine arm.
"Awooo!" Cerbe bounded over the bed from where his nap had been interrupted when Moira landed on him and nuzzled me for pets.
I scritched the Hellbeast's heads and looked to Lily. I could see her brain working furiously to connect the dots, but I got there first for once, because she was missing a vital piece of information.
"They have Elder magic. Somehow." All eyes swiveled to me and mass confusion showed in their many faces. I squirmed nervously as I struggled to find the right words. "It's... the Elder God's will made manifest." AKA DM fiat. I awkwardly ran my hand through my hair, bumping on my horns as I always did. "I... am- I'm the Elder God. Or at least, I think I was in my previous world? I may have had a hand in the creation of Illith Aranor? But that's kinda unclear. But I had this special power to... alter or rewrite reality in any way I saw fit." I allowed myself a small sigh of relief when Iridatha and Luna didn't immediately Annihilate me.
Mouth hanging wide open, Sterling looked to her girlfriend who seemed utterly speechless and flabbergasted. Iridatha's face gave nothing away, as was her nature, but Luna's eyes were the size of moons.
"Okay." The goddess of Life's sudden declaration nearly knocked me over.
"Okay?" I raised a disbelieving eyebrow.
The towering angel turned to the smaller angel in the room. "My champion. You trust her?"
Hannah nodded firmly without even hesitating. "I do."
"Well..." The normally unflappable Iridatha's hands shook as she ripped a piece of cloth from her under tunic and tried to tie it around her wounded arm. Luna grabbed it from her and secured the makeshift bandage properly. "One or more of my Divine kin just tried and came uncomfortably close to killing me. I will take an Elder God on my side and if my champion says I can trust her, then that's good enough for me."
"Agreed." Luna nodded vigorously while clinging possessively to her wife's side.
"Then, it's your lucky day, because you've actually got two." The words were forced out of my mouth as my brain actually had a clever moment and didn't want anyone to miss out on it. "I accidentally made Lily an Elder god when she inherited the character I created in Lapazulalei. And then she turned around and did the same to me when I inherited the Precept she created after she had gathered so many that she was stronger than any other gods."
Lily snapped her fingers and pointed at me. "And that's why you were drawn into this world. Whoever did it, let's assume person or persons unknown, somehow found out about your nature, and pulled you into this world in order for Elder magic to exist."
That's my clever girlfriend complicated friend.
"Lothe..." Luna's tiny voice was nearly lost in the cross chatter, but the room suddenly fell silent as the goddess of Truth turned to me and spoke up. "He called you little human."
"Hmm. I completely missed that." Iridatha settled her giant frame onto the floor with her back to the wall and rested her chin on her hand. Luna sat down beside her wife and fussed over the angel's wounded arm.
Hannah and Lily settled down on either side of me.
Moira looked over and smiled at Hannah. "Hey. I see Mount Celestia is missing more than one angel."
Sterling picked up a pillow and chucked it at her girlfriend. "Moira! We talked about this! We have to have a discussion before you invite strange women into our bed."
"All I said was hey!" Moira pouted, crossing her arms with a huff.
Hannah's cheeks flushed. "Hello. Um..." Her eyes flicked to me and back to Moira. "Nice to meet you, but I am... devoted to my goddess."
The tiny infernal woman rolled her eyes. "Yeah. Just like you only said hey to me and then an hour later I was naked in your bed. And just like you said hey to that dwarf yesterday and then she was naked in our bed. Discuss first; naked in bed after. Got it?"
Moira nodded, her cheeks coloring with embarrassment. "Yeah babe, I got it."
Iridatha turned to Lily. "Interesting company you keep these days. Having a girlfriend suits you."
"Oh, no! We're not- we work better as friends." The tiny ginger looked sideways at me beside her. My stomach fell out. Don't cry. Don't cry.
"Indeed?" Iridatha's eyes flicked and were back on Lily so fast that I almost missed the movement. Had she looked at me, at my lap? I looked down at my lap and was reminded that I wore nothing but a bikini that had been very nearly rendered immodest by demon attack. The goddess of Life smiled. "Well, keep doing whatever you're doing."
Lily looked at me again and mumbled something, but the only word I caught was 'paid.' She turned back to the giant goddess. "So... what now?"
The giant angel inclined her head in thought. "I once counted you as my sister. I would do so again as I feel our interests are aligned and... you're much more pleasant when you're not trying to murder everyone."
The tiny ginger blushed and sucked on her lip. "Yeah... that's fair. Alright." She scrubbed both hands over her face. "New day. Fresh leaf and all that. You two cloak yourselves and go find out what the fuck that demon fuck is up to, and if Malkiir or any others are helping him to do... whatever the fuck he's trying to do. We'll keep our heads down and find out what we can down here."
"Great! Now that all that is settled, could y'all get out of our room." Sterling made gentle shooing motions. "It's the middle of the night and we're very naked."
"I don't mind who sees." Moira stood up and showed off her ridiculously fit body to the room.
Lily leaned over, covering both my and Hannah's eyes. "Moira! Put it away. These are virginal eyes."
"I wouldn't have minded." Hannah mumbled. Me either.
The ginger, who got to look for some reason despite also being a virgin, lowered her hands after Moira had slipped into a mostly modest shirt.
Laughing to themselves, Iridatha and Luna disappeared in a dramatic flurry of white feathers.
"Oh!" As we were getting ready to leave, Hannah turned back to the two who's room we had crashed into. "Have you seen an infernal sorcerer named Cassandra? She and I arrived in the city together." Sterling shook her head.
The three of us found our way back to room number four. Lily slipped out of her dress and flopped onto the bed.
"I'm so exhausted." She stretched out with a yawn.
Hannah and I stood frozen together by the door. "Do... do we join her?"
I shrugged to the tall angel. "I have no freaking idea."
"I don't bite! And there's room for three." Lily called out to us with her 'you're being an idiot' voice.
Hannah pulled off her armor; her middriff on display since the bottom half of her tunic was wrapped around my arm. I grabbed the Magic Bag of Stuff off the floor and pulled on a long shirt.
We both climbed awkwardly into the bed and I ended up squashed between the two other women as we all got 'comfortable.'
Whelp. Sleep didn't seem likely.