4.09 – Chats

“But first, how much did Delta tell you?” Zoey asked.

“Um. Just that your class works with … less than appropriate stuff.” She seemed as embarrassed about her use of a euphemism as the topic itself. “And later, she mentioned the shards can be kind of ‘that way’, too.”

Rosalie snorted. “A little more than ‘kind of’.”

Zoey patted her knee, gently chiding her. The point was to be working Maddy into the idea, testing the waters. Not to emphasize just how crazy things got. Full disclosure would happen, obviously, but tactfully. Ease into it.

Rosalie cleared her throat, realizing her mistake.

“It’s not too complicated,” Zoey said. “Really, that’s the sum of it. My class, and because of it, the shards we go into, aren’t like most. Working through them requires some intimacy.”

“And I’d have to link up with you,” Maddy said. She blushed an even deeper red, glancing at both Rosalie and Delta, as if worried she’d said something wrong.

Delta laughed and bumped shoulders with her. “It doesn’t have to be much. Just a quick,” she made a jerking-off gesture. “The only hard part is getting your damn hand around it.”

Zoey would have thought Delta was addressing the topic a bit too directly, but Maddy only laughed, if higher pitch than normal. She and Delta were friends, so it made sense Delta had a better read on her than Zoey.

“And we could handle the less appropriate aspects,” Rosalie added. “For the short term. While you adjust. The challenge isn’t in the aspects related to Zoey’s class, and how she changes the shards. More, it’s in regular wayfaring. Combat capabilities. Your value as a standard team mate.”

“Zoey basically fucked the boss into submission herself,” Delta agreed. “Her magic’s a little rusty, but she knows how to give a dicking down.” Leaning closer to Maddy, she said, “Just ask blondie. They’ve known each other less than a week, and already girlfriends?” Delta gave her a significant look, which Maddy blushed furiously under.

“We are trying,” Rosalie growled, “to talk business.”

Delta made a faux show of contrition, raising her hands in an apologetic gesture. The shit-eating grin unfortunately diminished the effect. “Sorry. But, really, it is business. You’re good with your spear, and Zoey’s good with hers. Both relevant, isn’t it?”

Rosalie glared at Delta.

“You wouldn’t have to do much,” Zoey said, bringing them back to the topic at hand. “And we won’t be leaving for at least another week, so you have time to think about it. Get to know us, if that helps.”

“It’s a bit odd,” Maddy admitted. “I … I definitely haven’t made my mind up.” She bit her lip. “How, um, intense are we talking? Does it all get?”

Zoey hesitated. She’d been wanting to not dive off the deep end so Maddy had time to digest, but if she asked outright, Zoey wouldn’t lie.

“One of the challenge rooms was a dildo as thick as my thigh,” Delta offered. “Came with a potion that, like, negated my anatomy. I felt that thing bumping my heart around. And it bulged my stomach out like,” Delta gestured, indicating several nearly a foot. “Literally filled me up.”

Maddy gaped at her.

“Unfortunately, they’re not all that fun,” Delta sighed. “And I’m pretty sure princess has dibs on the next one.”

“Insufferable,” Rosalie said simply.

“I-I think it’s fine if you take those,” Maddy said, stumbling over her words. “I’ll stick with the normal stuff.”

“You will?” Delta asked, quirking an eyebrow.

Maddy realized what she’d said. “Y-You know, theoretically. If I did come.”

“If you came? Not an if. I’m guessing, six or seven times, on average.”

“Delta!” Maddy’s face burned under the aggressive teasing. Zoey wasn’t entirely sure if this was the best strategy to be taking, but Delta would know better. “A-Anyway,” Maddy stuttered, turning away from the fox-eared girl still grinning at her. “Different topic. Um.” She scrambled for something, but her brain was apparently blanking out.

Zoey came to the rescue. “I’m thinking of starting a business,” she said. Delta’d done a great job of cracking open some hard-to-address topics, but Zoey also though it was best they let them simmer, now, not push the point.

Fortunately, the swerve in topic was an interesting enough one to draw Delta’s attention, who seemed like she wanted to keep teasing Maddy, even against her better judgment. “Huh?” she said, turning to Zoey. “You are? Those potions?”

“I talked with Sabina about it. She agrees. She thinks there’s money to be made. But there’s lots of details to figure out.”

“What potions?” Maddy asked, eager to help solidify the change in conversation.

Unfortunately, it was only half a change.

“Zoey keeps getting lewd potion reagents,” Delta explained. “She’s working with an alchemist to have them refined.” She turned back to Zoey. “And, yeah, no shit. There’s serious money to be made, I bet. I thought your sugar mommy had you sorted, though?”

Rosalie gaped at her. “Please don’t call me that.”

“Please don’t,” Zoey agreed.

“Though, she has a point,” Rosalie said. “Finances aren’t something you should worry over.”

“Let me guess,” Delta said. “That only goes for her, not me.”

“You’re on your own,” Rosalie agreed. She turned to Zoey, waiting for a response.

“I want to try it out,” Zoey said. “Because … it’s … we can talk about it later. But I don’t want to mooch off your family.”

Rosalie frowned, but under the table, Zoey squeezed her knee, and Rosalie didn’t push the point. A significant look from Rosalie did make it clear that they would be talking about it, though.

“What kinds of reagents?” Maddy asked. The blush was mostly gone. She didn’t seem as intimidated talking about lewd potions as Zoey’s class or the shards they’d be delving. That was fair. The former didn’t require her participation.

“An infertility one,” Delta said.

“And the opposite,” Zoey added.

“Wait, really?”

“Not using it for obvious reasons,” she said dryly.

“But, it makes you more potent? That’d sell well, I bet. Not just as a fun potion, but for practical uses.”

“Yeah. That’s the plan.”

“And what else?” Maddy asked.

“Some we’re still messing with,” Zoey said. “There’s a sensitivity enhancer, though.”

“Try it out yet?” Delta asked.

“No. Been meaning to.”

“Too many choices?”

Zoey laughed. That was exactly it. There were a lot of items and potions she wanted to play with, but she could only have so much sex. Unfortunately.

“What kinds of details?” Rosalie asked. “That need to be figured out, I mean. You ought to be able to just rent a stall, somewhere. No?”

“It’d have to be in the red light district. But yeah, it wouldn’t be that complicated. Mostly I meant long term stuff.”

“Long term?”

“Sabina might be willing to head to Mantle with us, but—“

A ripple went through the table, cutting Zoey off.

“What?” Zoey asked.

Delta looked around, then wiped a hand down her face, looking exasperated. “Good thing we got the private booth.”

“Sorry?” What happened? Zoey was a bit lost. Even Rosalie had pressed her lips into a line.

“Mentioning our plans to travel to the capital of enemy territory, at full volume, in a public bar, is generally inadvisable,” Rosalie said. She eyed Maddy, gauging her reaction, but Maddy mostly seemed surprised, not … whatever else she would be.

“Regular people don’t care much about guild relations,” Delta said, “but shouting out your alignment isn’t a great idea, either.”

“I didn’t shout.” Though she hadn’t been moderating her volume, and had a few drinks in her. Maybe she hadn’t been quiet, either.

But yeah. She remembered now. The city of Treyhull was in Striders territory, one of the highguild’s more important cities, and fairly deep into their domain. Mantle would be the seat of the Deepshunters, the opposing highguild.

“We should’ve made it more explicit,” Rosalie said. “I just assumed—well, I shouldn’t have.“

Well, Zoey was feeling pretty stupid, right about now. She supposed it was obvious in retrospect.

“I don’t care,” Maddy offered. Delta hadn’t been eying her like Rosalie had, so it seemed Delta already knew she wouldn’t be strongly aligned with the Striders. “My mom’s, uh, a minor member of the Sovereign, actually. So either way you three aligned, doesn’t matter to me.”

The announcement made Rosalie lean back in surprise. It took a second for Zoey to place the term ‘Sovereign’. They were the third major political party in the fractures, a ‘sort-of’ highguild. They stood apart from regular politics. Wayfarers strictly interested in, well, their sovereignty, who had banded together to have the collective strength to be able to stay out of politics.

“I see,” Rosalie said. “I figured Delta would have mentioned if you weren’t amenable to the idea, but I forgot to ask. Sovereign, though. Who?”

“Is my mom?”

Rosalie inclined her head.

"Margaretta Quick,” Maddy replied. “The illusionist.”

“The Moonlight Weaver.”

“You know her?” Maddy seemed surprised at that.

“Of course. It’s important to know the enemy.” Rosalie paused. “As a figure of speech.”

Zoey could tell the correction might not be wholly the truth. Maybe Rosalie didn’t consider the Sovereign enemies, but potential ones? Yes, certainly that.

Just who was her girlfriend, anyway? There were still secrets—on both sides—the two of them should talk about. Zoey intended to divulge hers. She’d made a good start with their talks during their date. But full disclosure. The insane circumstances of her transmigration and Ephy’s choosing of her to be her champion. Just, she was the slightest bit worried whether she should. Whether there’d be consequences. Maybe Zoey needed to try to get in contact with Ephy. Was it even possible? Possibly not, but she should at least try. If she couldn’t, then she’d talk to Rosalie, explain the situation, consequences be damned.

“But back to the alchemy store,” Rosalie said, bumping shoulders with Zoey. “We interrupted you.”

Well, actually, Zoey had interrupted herself by being an idiot, but she’d accept the euphemistic way to put it.

“So, Sabina might be willing to come with us when we leave, since she doesn’t have much tying her down, and she’s interested in the reagents we get. Plus, the money to be made. But she’s not a saleswoman, and I don’t have the time either, so we’d need someone to handle the business side of things. Both customer facing, and … balancing the books. And whatever.” Zoey didn’t actually know what went into running a business.

“So you’re hiring,” Delta said. “I can’t imagine it’d be hard to find someone, though.”

“Willing to travel?”

“Why not have one here, then get another at our destination?”

“It’s not off the table,” Zoey admitted. “We’d just prefer someone consistent. Someone we could bring halfway into the loop, and we trust.”

“Hm,” Delta said. “Well, I don’t know about ‘trust’, but do you remember Adrienne?”

The name rang a bell. “Wait … that girl from two nights ago?” That Delta had thoroughly plowed using Zoey’s own cock.

“That’s her,” Delta said, a smile quirking her lips that said she knew why Zoey had placed the name. “Hard to forget, right?”

She had been impressively shameless. She’d come back to Delta’s room with Zoey’s own cum caking her face, only half cleaned off. She’d worn it like a badge of pride. The thought had something stirring in Zoey, which she tried to fight away. “Yeah. Hard to forget. But what, she’s looking for work?”

“Maybe not actively. But she’s good with numbers—she works as an accountant already.”

“That’s not exactly what we’re looking for. The business part Sabina can mostly handle.”

Delta raised her eyebrows. “And you don’t think that girl would make an enthusiastic saleswoman? She’d probably be offering customers to demonstrate with her. She’d have potions flying off the shelves.”

Zoey coughed. Good points. Even based on the brief interactions Zoey had had with the auburn haired girl, Delta’s claim she’d be willing to ‘demonstrate’ might be true. “Okay. Maybe it would be a good fit.”

“Worth asking her?”

“If you can.”

“Plus,” Delta said. “If we can convince her to leave Treyhull and come with us …” She briefly lost her train of thought, then shook her head, grinning at Zoey. “I wanna share her with you, sometime. You have got to see what she’s like, when things get going.”

Such a casual offer of a threesome had even Zoey’s cheeks coloring. Seriously, if Delta called this girl shameless, she couldn’t imagine what she must be like. “I’ll keep that in mind,” Zoey replied. The answer was obviously ‘yes’, but for Rosalie and Maddy’s sake, she kept the response neutral.

Delta knew it was a yes, anyway. The shit-eating grin gave it away.

Zoey sought out for a change in topic.