363: Side Errynds
The past two weeks since Mavialeko's awakening had been fairly busy for everyone, and Mordecai had a few more things to take care of today before he felt he could settle into a new routine for a while. He slipped out of bed as gently as he could, so as not to disturb the others too much. Moriko, back to her normal form now that last night's spell had worn off, happily rolled into his place to snuggle up against Kazue. On the other side of Kazue was Satsuki, who was still in a pretty boy version of her normal self.
He paused by the side of the bed to check on the magic ritual that they had used last night, to verify that it was still working as intended. Outside of extreme cases, even fertility magic did not fully implant a pregnancy this fast, but it was possible to verify that it was working and that there were no issues. Unless something else happened, Kazue would be having a child with four parents, three of them technically fathers.
Which brought up rather entertaining memories of last night as Mordecai made his way to the bath to clean up before getting dressed for the day. Kazue had been almost overwhelmed by her own imagination when Satsuki had arrived in their bedroom in that form, wearing only a silk kimono that was just barely closed enough to cover at the waist, and leave all of one thigh exposed, proving that even in male form, Satsuki knew how to wear clothing in a way that was more enticing than being naked.
Toying with a worked-up Kazue would have been fun, but the little red vixen had one of those moments where she needed to be in control instead, and when she switched to that mode, she sent Mordecai a wicked idea to 'sabotage' the spell he was customizing for Moriko.
For some targets, the suggested change would have been too much without the target's permission, but Mordecai had judged that Moriko would appreciate this surprise. The spell had originally been to give just Moriko a male form for the night, and Moriko had asked for the first modification, namely, to make her into an usagisune version of herself as well as male. What had been taking Mordecai a bit of time was fine-tuning the change to have as little impact on physical inheritance as possible, and Kazue's idea had little impact on that base concern.
Moriko was quite surprised to find her, now his, new body left him as quickly responsive as an over-eager and inexperienced young man, though with dubious benefit of no recovery time being required. Mordecai also added an enchantment on top for increased stamina and a mild regeneration spell, to ensure all was functional for the night's ritual.
Kazue then took full advantage of the overwhelmed Moriko, teasing him into a quick succession of climaxes while Kazue took her time enjoying herself. She had then coaxed Moriko into waxing poetic about how he adored and needed her, and when she was satisfied with the praise, practically savaged Moriko until the disciple of passion was unable to form coherent words anymore.
Once Moriko had been rendered sufficiently incapable of thought for a while, Kazue had turned on Satsuki, who had been waiting in a kneeling position at Kazue's insistence, after Satsuki had initially tried to take charge by seducing Kazue.
Without magic, the oath that Kazue had enticed from Satsuki last night couldn't have been made a physical guarantee, but given that Kazue was a faerie queen, this was the sort of promise that could have physical impact. Kazue had Satsuki swear all aspects of his fertility, in any form, over to Kazue's desires and demands. Satsuki had little if any desire to sire or bear children outside of this group to begin with, but now Satsuki had little say, either way.
Mordecai was surprised by that demand, but even more surprised by the complicated emotions in Satsuki's response. Surrendering even more control like that was a strike at Satsuki's pride and ego, yet the nine-tail also clearly loved Kazue for being able to 'force' that promise.
Not that he had escaped Kazue's mood either, but the promise she extracted from him related to an earlier conversation, led by Moriko.
Moriko had wanted to discuss their marriage and the agreements thereof. This started with Moriko acknowledging that her base drives had not changed much; if she thought Mordecai and Kazue would be happy with it, Moriko would be fine with a more open marriage. But as she knew that wasn't the case, she offered a different idea. While more casual encounters were clearly not a consideration, if Moriko found someone particularly interesting, she would see if Kazue and Mordecai were willing to let Moriko offer that person an invitation to join all three of them.
Mordecai and Kazue found that acceptable, though Kazue had a little bit of hesitation that she couldn't quite articulate. Moriko, however, had some insight. For all that some of Kazue's favorite fantasies involved near strangers, or in a few cases, people so driven that they didn't even know each other's names yet, Kazue clearly needed more emotional intimacy if she was going to be directly involved. But Moriko had a wicked smile when she asked Kazue how the kitsune felt about watching Mordecai or Moriko playing with someone else.
Kazue's soft gasp gave away that answer, and a little more teasing on Moriko's part was enough to get Kazue to admit to being voyeuristic, a trait she hadn't realized about herself before. Also, being 'forced' by one of her spouses to watch while the other one played with someone else played into some of her fantasies.
As for Mordecai, well, he'd honestly be happiest with the simplicity of a normal, closed relationship. He didn't have any issue with the concept of the occasional extra really, he just normally found the practical issues to be stressful.
Then again, the problems he and Satsuki had experienced had a lot to do with Satsuki's need to play certain types of games and inability to completely communicate her needs. But while Moriko had a similar drive to Satsuki's, she did not have the nine-tail's emotional issues and had the training to help her communicate more clearly. So long as everything was handled well, he was happy to occasionally indulge his wives in such matters.
Which was where the promise Kazue had extracted from him came in. What she had originally asked for was a promise to always be willing to indulge any voyeuristic urges of hers — to bed anyone Kazue wanted him to bed. While she had managed to make it very tempting to give in to her demands, Mordecai's nature made it impossible for him to make such an open-ended promise on such matters. A simple modification fixed that issue: "...within reason and consent."
He couldn't imagine that clause ever actually being an issue, but he just could not make the promise without it.
That had earned him looks of amused exasperation from all three of the others, and that was a memory that made him smile as he finished reminiscing while drying off.
As he got dressed, Mordecai wondered if any part of Kazue's mood and demands last night had been influenced by the modified elven magic. Over the past week, Satsuki had helped him redesign the ritual to remove certain aspects, such as a gender filter ensuring that the child would be female, but the intent of the original design was for a queen who ruled over her council of consorts. It was possible that the original intent had an influence on the way the magic had manifested.
Well, it didn't matter at the moment, though it was something to be looked at in the future, assuming they decided to use the ritual again. Shaking off those thoughts, Mordecai finished his preparations by casting some spells that would last the day unless triggered, but be inactive until then, and then made his way down to the first of his stops for the day, and used the underground tunnel that connected Azeria's territory to Kuiccihan's territory.
Kuiccihan appeared shortly after he crossed the border. "To what do I owe the honor of your sudden visit?"
He smiled at the playful tone and said, "I think you know. Trying to corrupt my own granddaughter already, tsk." Mordecai shook a finger at Kuiccihan's attempt to look innocent. "The moment I noticed Krystraeliv was growing out from our borders, I asked Mavi about it, and she told me all about your little meeting with her."
"It seems you have caught on to my wicked plan." Kuiccihan gave a slightly mocking bow. "Now the question is, are you going to do anything about it?"
Mordecai shook his head. "No, we discussed it yesterday, and we won't stop it." Kuiccihan wanted to encourage the crystalline world tree to grow into her territory to accelerate the process of Azeria's growth while enabling the reduction of her own power in a controlled fashion. "However, there is something I should warn you of."
"Oh?"
"By the time there is enough shift in power to enable the changes you want, Satsuki will be one of our raid bosses, which means she will be able to act on our behalf when it comes to conquering another core to make it a subsidiary. As to the nature of that conquest, well, I'll leave that matter between the two of you. Though if you intend to entertain her with a fight, I recommend you consider merging a selection of your avatars." While Satsuki certainly would not be able to conquer a nexus like Kuiccihan on her own right now, if Kuiccihan was weaker and Satsuki was empowered enough by Azeria, that could change quite radically.
Kuiccihan's eyes had widened at that. "I, ah, I see. That will be interesting, but not for a quite a while yet." Mordecai couldn't tell if she was disappointed, relieved, or eager, and he wouldn't be surprised if she wasn't certain herself. "Um, was that all?"
"Yes, I just wanted to talk briefly on my way. I will be visiting the Azeria Clan next." Mordecai took his leave of her, then stepped into the shadow realm, making his way swiftly through the forest. He felt Norumi's attention turn his way briefly before she recognized him, but she was the only one of the clan's guardians who noticed his movement through the shadows.
There were some hunters who clearly knew how to move through the shadows, but his knowledge and power ran deeper than their understanding and senses did, and he avoided them readily before stepping out of a deep shadow in the roots of a great tree.
The first of the kitsune to see him walking toward Aia's home stared in surprise for a moment before she recognized him, then she shook her head and ran ahead to tell others. He was being a little badly behaved by showing up unannounced, but Aia's home was also where the matriarch met visitors and was not just her private residence.
Of course, he wasn't there just to see her. In fact, she wasn't even his primary reason. After all, he was responsible for the welfare of his inhabitants, so it was his duty to check up on Erryn, who was visiting his daughters.
The fact that this also meant that Mordecai was going to meet a trio of adorable, long-eared kitsune babies before his wives did, and would thus be able to tease his wives about it, had nothing to do with why he had happened to forget to mention this side trip to them.
He had to remind himself to not smile too much at the thought; grinning widely as he walked might look a bit creepy.
Mordecai hadn't even reached the front entrance before a younger kitsune approached to guide him to the back stairs, leading him up and opening the door for him after a brief knock. It seemed that Aia understood his priorities.
"Hello, Erryn," he said in greeting as he entered.
Erryn nodded an acknowledgment. "Good morning, sir. Just a moment."
The young man was attempting to wrangle three wriggling kitsune babies, who seemed to be enjoying the game of not laying still at all while their father was trying to get them grouped together to present them at the same time. Mordecai laughed as he simply knelt down to join them on the floor. "It's alright, I think I can tell them apart."
"Well, that's true enough. So, um, we went with gemstone names. This is Garnet, Jade, and Iolite." He pointed to the red-haired, green-haired, and blue-haired infants respectively. Each of them also had a lock of nearly jet-black hair that contained gem-like sparkles, which was clearly the inspiration for using gem-themed names.
"They are beautiful—" Mordecai couldn't say which of them locked eyes with him first, but it didn't matter as the other two abruptly stared at him as well. He wasn't immediately certain what he was feeling from them, but he instantly chose to not resist whatever their gaze was carrying. A moment later, the sensation had passed and the girls were smiling and giggling again.
"You felt it that strongly too, huh? I barely felt it, only some of the four-tails have felt it, and any with five or more tails felt it clearly, but no three-tails have noticed."
Mordecai nodded as he worked on figuring out exactly what he had experienced in that gaze. "That was complicated, but not directly dangerous. I assume this is why neither you nor Aia let me know to expect anything?"
"Yes," Erryn said. "Aia said it would probably be best to let you experience it like that, because she wants your opinion on what it is before she says anything."
"We'll wait for her then, and I'll give my thoughts when she arrives." He was happy to tickle the girls and play little games like hiding his face while they waited for Aia. The girls were adorable and were probably going to be absolute terrors of a sort when they got older. At least, for those who had to deal with them all the time. Mordecai was going to take advantage of being able to play the role of a grandfather or uncle and simply spoil them when he could.