Chapter 481 – Victoria Finds a Bed

I'm in the middle of three phoenixes. Three true phoenixes are hugging me at the same time. It's really warm in the middle, and they were nice enough to be in their humanoid forms. But I can see Victoria sweating, off to the side, but that may be due to the heat inside the cave instead of from her charge being in the middle of three beings who can kill us both.

"I'm sorry," Ryze says. "I should've helped you. I'm excited for grandchildren and that your life is finally changing for the better. We've been stuck doing the same thing for too long. I'm a little annoyed that you're married to that snooping fox and nearly got mated with the lizard, but I did miss you."

"Yes, things are nice," Eterna says.

"I'm sorry for ruining your date," Ryze says. "I should've waited for you to come by. I'm sorry for forcing my way into your day."

"Could we have some time?" Eterna asks.

"Of course," Ryze says. "I'm sorry for yelling and getting mad. I was scared about everything changing and overreacted, but you're safe and happy and pregnant. Congratulations."

She says that, but she isn't letting go. Is Eos going to stay as well? This is so strange.

"Mother," Eterna says.

"I'm going, I'm going," Ryze says. Slowly, I feel the arms around me loosen, and the hug finally breaks apart. "Have a nice day. Sorry for the interruption. Shimmer, congratulations on your kids as well. I'm sorry for saying that I don't care about you all. I sit around here to help the people; otherwise, I would leave more often. I've said a lot of things in anger today, so I'm sorry, everyone, for my anger. Phoenixes keep making bad first impressions. Sorry."

"It's ok," I say. "I'm getting used to terrible first impressions. I'm starting to wonder if I make people behave terribly when I first meet someone."

"No, you didn't do anything that made me have an outburst. That part is all on me," Ryze says. "You're kind. That much is obvious with how happy Eterna is. Have your date. Though I shouldn't be saying that. We're both too old to be acting like you need my permission. I've gotten too angry to be doing this. Thank you, Eos, for coming around and helping me. I feel stupid. But enough saying things. I'm leaving now."

Ryze walks past us, and once she is far enough away, she turns into a ball of fire, reappears in her bird form, and continues walking out.

"I should go as well," Eos says. "I told her to leave you alone several times before today, but you know how she can get. Have a nice day. I'm excited to meet the kids. If you need help flying kids around, just ask. We know how to control the temperature around us enough to keep them safe. You're married, right? So Eterna already has kids if you ever want to bring them around, or if Kiyomi won't get overly mad about me coming down."

"She'll live, if you want to meet the kids," I say. "I know a few of the older kids would love to fly around with me. I'm still limited in my form, and I trapped Eterna like this for a bit, but we can try to set something up or bring them up here for some fun. Thank you for coming by. Eterna said you like to hide."

"Ryze is a bit much to be around," Eos says. "But I'm happy to be around Eterna. Anyway, I'll go fill in my normal role and hide away so you can finish the date. Fourth mountain, if you do want to come by for something."

"Ok, bye, Eos!" Eterna says. "Thanks for visiting. I missed you."

"Missed you too, cousin," Eos says, walking out after Ryze.

"Quite the fucking family," Victoria says, walking deeper into the cave. "And what the fuck was I supposed to do when you were getting fucking hugged by two damn true phoenixes? It's not like I'm fucking fast enough to do any fucking thing if those shits make a move; they're just going to fucking do whatever they want."

"I was there," Eterna says. "Mother likes to yell more than act. And Eos is nice. Things were fine. Just a little way farther in, and..."

"Fuck, this damn bed is massive!" Victoria says. "Why the fuck were we standing outside when we could've been in the bed?!"

"You'll enjoy the bed," Eterna sighs. "Well, let's go join her for a bit. Maybe she'll get pregnant today."

I think we can trust Victoria about how good a bed is. I wonder if the person who made it is still alive. I can see if I can have an addition made to my massive bed for the heavily pregnant women to rest in, like myself or Elyne. Maybe Yzzorres will come around for a soft bed? But do I want that? She's just as bad as Ryze, with nonstop complaints.

They'll fit right in with the other Goddesses in the divine realm. I would say they would be good Goddesses, but I don't think many good Goddesses even exist. Well, maybe some of the ones with niche affinities are good, and they just don't have the power to make the world better.

I really need to work with Fertility on filling out the divine realm, and I feel that there is someone else, but who? Space? But that still needs Fertility to make it work, and Hearth. Whatever, it's probably just me that I'm thinking about. Life would be a nice affinity. I need to give life to more Goddesses and teach them how to be nice before more people like Justice, Ryze, and Yzzorres become Goddesses.

I turn the corner in the cave and see Victoria stuck in the middle of a massive bed. There's enough room for more than one true phoenix to use it at the same time. Someone was hopeful. That probably explains why she's so much nicer than her Mother.

"That is a big bed," I say. "You could get lost in there."

"It's fucking comfortable," Victoria says. "I'm fucking sleeping. You two have your fucking date or something. Pick me up tomorrow or some shit."

"Are you trying to copy Yzzorres or something?" I ask.

"She seems like a bitch, so I fucking hope not," Victoria says.

"You are more willing to work than Yzzorres is, but you both have the same priorities," I say. "But we all need to test the bed."

"It is the best part of my nest," Eterna says. "Most of my time was spent dealing with Mother or flying around. We can do that when we can both transform. It'll be a lot better when we're using the big wings. It just feels better."

"That sounds nice," I say. "A long flight would be great. I haven't had many chances to have a long flight. I think my longest has been when I was carrying my kids around the castle grounds." My flight with Syro ended rather quickly and suddenly. I didn't have much time in the village when my wings were finally strong enough to lift me off the ground for any amount of time. I've really spent a lot of time on the ground for a dragon.

I crawl into the bed and make my way over to the lazy warrior. Eterna just jumps into the bed while Shimmer just curls up at the edge. Is she worried that something is going to happen in bed? Is she ready to hand off our kid to Kou? I think the only thing that's going to happen in this bed is sleep. I'm practically up in the clouds. Maybe some days, there are even clouds in the cave, given how high up we are.

"I see why you're so happy about the bed," I say.

"Don't get too fucking close," Victoria says.

"Oh, is someone worried?" I tease. "You chose to wear your leather instead of the steel. I think you wanted this."

"Don't fucking tell me about my damn leather," Victoria says. "If I'm fucking fighting, then we're all fucked, and I would rather not die from burning in my own damn steel to fucking death. I'm not going to be a fucking slow roast!"

"You are a slow roast," I say. "Slowly, I've worked to get you into my bed. Sure, you're in Eterna's bed, but we're here together."

"Then I'm not fucking leaving this damn bed," Victoria says. "Just fucking bring Stacy here."

She really is just like Yzzorres. Just with a sense of duty that overrides her base instincts, and, despite the foul language, she's a lot nicer.

"We can remember that for later," I say. "I'm doing my best to keep some women from getting pregnant so that they can be guards and whatnot. I messed up a little by getting so many warriors pregnant, and then I got Elora pregnant again. Though she kind of needed it and everything. But then Nanoka and..."

"Yes, yes, I fucking know you've gotten almost everyone in the damn harem pregnant," Victoria says. "I can't fucking believe that I ended up in this group, married to a fucking Empress, when everyone said I wasn't worth a fucking baron. If you ever want to get me fucking pregnant, you can, just don't fucking bloat me up. I'm going to be fucking annoyed if I struggle to fucking move."

"I'll see what I can do," I say, snuggling up against her. "I should warn you that I struggle to remember that in bed. Nakuma was supposed to have only a few, but she ended up with ten kids. Nanoka just really didn't want to get healed, so that one isn't on me. And the women in the ritual deserved their counts. But the others were me either getting tricked or kind of forgetting to control myself."

"Well, fuck," Victoria says. "I want some fucking kids eventually, I think, so I'll fucking live with it. Our pregnancies are a lot fucking shorter than they're supposed to fucking be, so I'll fucking deal with it. If Kou doesn't fucking kill me for my damn tongue."

"I would never kill you, Lady Victoria, just take out the troublesome part," Kou says from the edge of the bed, one tail dangling in front of Shimmer for our kid to play with.

"Fuck, you would fucking heal me, right?"

"Maybe? Your tongue is a problem," I say.

"What's so bad about her tongue? She's pretty. I'm not overly attached to human forms, but I can see some things to like about her," Eterna says. "I certainly don't see anything wrong with her tongue."

"It's not something you can see," I chuckle. "She curses too much."

"Oh, that. I don't think that is too much of a problem," Eterna says. "She isn't mean to anyone. I've heard people speak more politely, yet all they do is tear people down. Queens are terrible about doing that. They consider themselves so high above others and forget that some beings are a lot stronger than they are. The worst of the bunch, I would usually scare. Peeping through their window at night, then shooting off into a bunch of flames, does wonders for correcting behavior. But I don't think that would fix Victoria's problem. It would probably just make it worse for anyone standing near her when I did it."

"I agree," I say. "I wouldn't be surprised if some nobles have insulted me to my face without me even understanding that they did. Nobles are a strange group. The others can sleep here for a bit if you want to show me the rest of your nest. I think we're safe now, so Victoria doesn't have to follow us around."

"I would love to!" Eterna says. "It's just, there isn't too much else."

"I still want to see it all," I say.