Chapter 51. Quarters

It is Sunday. And I am working. Woe is me. Well, not really, nope. Just poking fun at it. I've done my casual teleportation to Grand Forge and brought back half a ton of steel and brass ingots, then did another jump to Bakarat and got a load of prepared glass mix. Well... I went to Bakarat, got told off, found Ed, got him to write me a letter, hopped back to Bakarat, was apologized at profusely and THEN they brought out the glass mix. On the other hand, Edward had shown unexpected foresight in that he wrote me a letter of introduction instead of order. Said letter being more or less "this person is my ally and friend, try to meet her reasonable requests to the best of your ability, she will be working with us for foreseeable future". Finally, a stroll to the marketplace where I emptied two big jewelries of all unworked silver they were willing to sell. Not going to mess with mercury amalgam just yet, but silver should be the next best thing for a couple mirrors. I suppose I could have just melted a bunch of ecus for silver, but that occurred to me right as I laid the silver ingots on the worktable. Hindsight - nature's way of letting you feel stupid.

I promised a bunch of tools to the royal doctor and grand inquisitor, and darn it, I'm going to impress the bejeezus out of them. Simple things first - a selection of lancets and scalpels of assorted shapes and sizes. All of them are made from composite steel - harder core, milder envelope. Should be mildly self-whetting, though not quite to the degree I could get out of metalloceramics. Unfortunately, while I can get make it happen via shoggoth bullshit, I need to craft things dwarves can reproduce, and they're a long way off from composite metalloceramics yet. Though they'll get there soon enough - magic is a hell of a booster.

Now, let's see what I can do about optics. A pair of articulately mounted magnifying glasses. Should be useful for examinations. Microscopes... hm. Copper hulls, lenses... easy enough. I don't want to push the envelope on this. Oculars are 5x and objectives are 20x, giving the grand total of 100x maximum magnification. After a little consideration, I add fine adjustment screws to the beds. Just to be fancy. Magnification can be made higher, but glassworking needs to be more mechanized to provide consistent lens grinding. Something to work up to. Now, some things I didn't mention to either of them. First is a head mirror... GAH! Making a concave mirror is surprisingly tricky, I only manage a passable one on the fourth try. Then again, I am making them from glass, silver and a backstop of brass on a leather band - a bit more steampunk than plastic and plastic.

I round out the selection with a number of Petri dishes, specimen glasses, inspection mirrors and an assortment of surgical forceps. Actually, on consideration, I add a couple different scissors into the mix. There, now the kits are well-diversified and should serve well for medical or forensic diagnostics. Now to pack them up...

___

It's ridiculous. All this finicky work, and it's barely half to midday by the time I'm very much done with it all. Then again, I could use some rest and relaxation, and I had been preparing for this for a while. No, not the big surprise that I'm building, that's gonna take another week to finish completely. But, I have had been messing around with my "be in several places at once" trick, and I am confident I can handle four instances casually. Which is important, because... Well.

So, I tell Bridgit I'm going to take a bit of a walk, and go out into the garden, where I split into four identical instances. And promptly march back... Oh. Oh dear. I do not know why dean's been out, but I think he was... more than a little discomfited by seeing four of me advancing on him in a synchronized march, if his fading expletives are of any indication. A bit of inconspicuous monitoring tells me he run right back to his office, swearing all the way, locked himself in and busted out brandy again. Oh well. Sorry about that. Totally not intended, if hilarious.

Why I'm doing this? Well, there is a simple explanation. While I am quite satisfied with my harem as is, I do want to give each of the girls some personal attention. A one-on-one date, if you will. And since I can not figure out any way to do this sequentially without giving false impressions of favoritism, I'm going to do all four at once. Hence four of me.

We troop in, maintaining a poker face just in case someone else spots us (no one does, sadly) and enter the rooms. Bridgit looks up to greet me and stumbles over her words once she sees the increase in numbers. Then she YELPS. Lily-Anne shows up first, entering from the bedroom, and gapes at me, poking a finger in my general directions several times wordlessly. Moon Unit and Roxolane show up a few moments later, coming out of Moon Unit's room together. I think they were hashing out something with Roxolane's portal theory, because both of them have fingers smudged with ink. (Note to self, invent fountain pens.)

In the end, the only one who took my newest trick with aplomb was Moon Unit. The rest were apparently under the impression splitting in two is the most I can do. Silly of them, honestly. I thought I had already demonstrated common sense may as well go out and have a smoke as far as me and my matters is concerned.

"Hello, Ladies." - tell all of them... and pause as I realize all of them simultaneously twitch. Lower volume, because quadruple voices apparently is too much. "Would you like to go on a date with me?" - I offer them - "I was thinking that going everywhere as a group might get a little inconvenient, so the natural conclusion was to split up."

"...Only you." - Moon Unit mutters, as she facepalms at my horrible pun - "And yes, I would like to." She links her arm with the instance closest to her and marches back to her room. Once there, she chuckles wryly, and nudges me - "The best of all worlds, isn't it? Every time I think I've seen everything you find some new way to make me stare in awe." She lets me go and saunters off to the handwashing basin to rinse the ink off her fingers - "Give me a bit of time to put on my coat and shoes and we can go. I take it you also planned each of those to match our personal interests, didn't you?"

Back in the room, Lily-Anne snaps out of her befuddlement and grabs her own instance, dragging me off back to the bedroom - "Yes! Come on, help me get ready! Why didn't you tell me before, I don't even know what to wear!" She is already pulling her "home" shirt off as she speaks. Weirdly enough, Lily-Anne has probably the least body modesty out of all my wives. The rest of them tend to sequester themselves when changing, but Lily-Anne shows no hesitation in getting naked in front of any of us in any combination. I wonder why. Just feeling self-confident, or she actually wants to flaunt her body at me?

"Come on, don't just stand there. Help me!" - she demands, as she throws on a corset - "Agh, I wish blasted thing had ties in front!" Chuckling, I step up to help her with the stubborn garment... And we're not off to a great start. "Pull harder!" - she says, as she exhales. Yeah, no.

"Lily-Anne, I'm not going to squeeze your everything THAT hard." - I tell her - "Inhale, relax. You look best when you're not struggling to breathe."

She gives me a very nonplussed look. "It's not going to hurt me." - she pouts - "I want to look nice for you, alright?"

I wrap my arms around her midsection and run my fingers over her belly. "And I think you look nicer when you're not squeezing yourself like a sausage, dear." - I whisper into her ear - "Your natural shape is much, much, MUCH more enticing than the waspish figures those court dames sport."

She slumps. "I'm not a kid anymore, you know?" - she objects sullenly - "I can wear a corset properly."

I sigh. "Look." - I tell her in my "serious" voice - "I honestly do NOT like it when girls tie themselves up so hard. All that I am thinking when I look at one is 'gosh, she looks like she's about to faint'. I know what it's like to wear a corset, and I honestly prefer the ties to be tightened exactly as far as your figure goes, no more. It should accentuate what you have, not force you into a shape you're not."

"Really?" - she offers... Not quite accepting yet, but willing to entertain the notion.

"Of course." - I confirm, whispering in her ear - "Natural shapes is where it's at. Haven't you noticed I never wear any of those?"

"That doesn't count." - she objects immediately - "You can make your waist as narrow as you like."

"I can." - I agree placidly - "So the real question is - if I could have a waist a wasp would be envious of, why am I not sporting it already?"

She doubletakes at that notion. "So, wait... Are you seriously telling me you prefer it just like... this?" - she exclaims incredulously, smacking her sides lightly.

"Yes. Yes, I do." - I tell her, as I run my hands over her sides and on her hips - "Honestly speaking, I prefer seeing you without this torture contraption at all."

"Hmph!" - she retorts - "Well if you are so sure, why don't you take it off me?"

Ah. I had been slow about making things sexual, and I'm guessing Lily-Anne is having doubts about her attractiveness. Welp, that just won't do. I lean in and nab the tie with my teeth, pulling it loose, my fingers working under the corset and pulling it open, tossing it up and over Lily-Anne's head on the bed. "Much better." - I murr, as I slowly run my hands over her sides upwards, cupping her pert breasts and giving them a gentle squeeze - "The girl as nature intended. Can you think of anything more enticing?"

Back in the room, Bridgit is being bashful. "Mistress..." - she mutters - "This is too much. People will talk if you're seen with just me." An instance wraps an arm around her waist - "Shh. There are also three other dates I would be seen on, at the same time. I highly doubt anyone would manage to persuade everyone else they had the right account of it, you know?"

Roxolane has doubts of her own - "But I don't even know the city properly. I..." Instance hushes her gently with a finger to her lips - "You don't need to. I'm the one planning this date, remember? You can always ask me out later once you get a good idea of where you'd like to take me out to. But for now, I'm the one with the plan."

Bridgit gives in easily enough and chuckles wryly - "Only you, mistress. Very well, I am all yours." She gets a gentle kiss for her troubles and a coat held out for her to slip in. Which she does, blushing as she does so. "No one ever pampered her maid as much as you do, you know?" - she offers, as she walks out of the room with that instance, leaving the last of me alone with Roxolane.

They are followed moments later by a pair of Moon Unit and me, giving Roxy a cheerful wave before departing in a different direction. Roxolane bites her lip. "You know, I was about to ask for something like this." - she admits - "I... just didn't expect you to beat me to the punch." She stands up, and leans over to me, hugging me around the waist. "Can we go somewhere quiet?" - she offers softly.

Back in the bedroom, Lily-Anne is much less nervous now. I... probably should have been a bit more generous with intimacy, if her reactions are of any indication. Oh well, giving her some fondling and kissing had fixed things right up. She still wants to wear corset, but consents to having it tied loosely. The dress follows... And requires a lot more of ties handling. I need to invent zippers sometime, this is tedious.

Roxolane is still washing her hands when Lily-Anne and me emerge from bedroom and depart, making me and her officially the last couple to start the date. The preparations are surprisingly simple for something she hesitated over so much. And... she might be having a bit of the same problem as Lily-Anne, because now that I'm aware of it, I can see her flip-flopping between rather shy attempts to 'show me more' and periods of obvious unsurety.

"Oh, before we go." - tell her, and she stops, turning to face me slowly. I don't give her time to overthink this, leaning in to give her a nice and deep kiss. She is shocked initially, her eyes snapping wide before slowly closing as she tenderly reciprocates. And if I gave her hips a bit more of stroking then strictly necessary, well, she does seem to be appreciating the confirmation of her sex appeal. Not pushing her for more, though. I'm very determined to let her set the pace on intimacy. She needs to be in control after her misadventures in Sultan's seraglio.

"Why don't you touch me like this more often?" - she demands suddenly, pushing away a bit.

"Well, I don't want to pressure you past your comfort zone." - I explain, and she frowns at it... Huh.

"I'm not made out of spun glass, you know." - she whispers - "I appreciate you, I really do, but sometimes I can't help but wonder if you really want me."

"Of course I want you." - I object - "Sometimes, it's very hard to resist."

"But... I would like it if you wouldn`t resist more often." - she retorts - "Honestly, I'm... fine! I'm better then fine. I'm free. I'm happy. I am with a wonderful person, in a loving family. I can handle more... I want to do more."

Yep, confirmed. Roxy got thirsty too. Welp, I guess I'm getting laid four times this evening. I suppose this is the point where I reaffirm she is very much sexually appealing to me. But... I just can't seem to find good words. So I settle for action, grabbing her in a tight hug and kissing her again. This time, without holding back on lust. She squeaks into the kiss, squirming as my hands roam over her shapely rear and round hips.

"...Let's go, Roxy." - I offer to her after a few more minutes if pretty frantic kissing and fondling - "I'm honestly about to just throw you on the bed and have my way with you right now if we continue, and that would ruin all the plans I made."

She pouts. "Would it be so bad?" - she asks me.

"NNngh. No. No, it would be very good." - I admit - "But I really want to take you out first."

"First, hmm?" - she teases - "I'll hold you to it, then."