Chapter 24: Chapter 6 – Zaria

--- --- Week 1 - Day 6 - Sunday, 8th Day of the Seventh Month --- ---

When Zaria woke, it was with her drow lover still curled around her, the breasts pressing into her back.

Next time, she decided to enjoy their lovers' plays in adult shape.

With a lot of regret, she wriggled free of the black skinned beauty.

All those spells did not recharge themselves on their own after all. And for a day off, she had burned through more than on many adventures. There were plenty left though. Even if lower ones. She had to smile at the irony of calling her warmage and bard levels low.

She should probably use them more and keep her sorcerer spells for things where caster level counted.

It was worth a thought.

She put on a light nightgown and jumped out the window. The tree under which she mediated was welcoming as usual.

This time the temple was empty, creatures had left, now plants and animals were taking over. The monsters and magical beast being driven out by the purity of the sanctuary, and the monsters losing bit by bit to the calls of nature. The city around it having lost to nature as corruption had made people leave, first one by one and then in droves. Without the people, the corrupted members of the city council made more laws that impacted the people, in turn driving them away. The corrupted clerics left for greener pastures. The cleric in Zaria cried for a splendid temple falling into ruin. While the shrine maiden felt satisfied at the loss of an oversized pompous temple as opposed to a small shrine you could maintain with your own hands. The Druid in her just appreciated how nature retook what was once hers.

Zaria returned from her prayers and meditations hours later. This was once again a continuation of the story. The fall to corruption, the loss of the people, the abandonment, the darkness, and finally the reclaimed by nature.

Her Goddess had abandoned them, after they had abandoned her. She had not forgotten the temple, she had not forgiven, and she was still pained by their fall into corruption.

The Temple Raider in her was finally screaming for attention. There was a forgotten temple to explore.

With a sigh she rose and returned to her room, this time running up the wall to get back inside.

Back inside Cibelle was already awake and ready to help with the morning bath.

------

After the bath, during which Zaria explained why the tail was lovers only, and then insisted on working all those gentle touches off with her drow lover, Cinnamon was waiting wide awake for once.

"Good morning Mistress. What are your plans for today?" She pulled out various sheets. "Breakfast will be delivered soon, I expect Elior to arrive as well."

"I am planning on exploring the mansion, there are so many forgotten rooms." Zaria said as she pulled her bunny close and cuddled her pet. "Like the one in my study."

"You should look through your letters too, Mistress." Cinnamon reminded her very random Mistress.

"I should continue reading too." Zaria mumbled while trying to remember everything she was supposed to do. "I need thieves' tools, actually I don't, but it is good to do things properly. And I guess it is a 'tools of trade' thing." Zaria pondered. "Class pride and effects and all that."

That got nods from both maids.

"So, after breakfast a quick jump somewhere to get masterwork thieves tools, … I haven't been to the nearby city yet actually. Half an hour away you said?"

"Half an hour by horse, a little more by carriage, about an hour on foot for normal people. You will probably get there in minutes by running, Mistress." Cibelle reported, Cinnamon nodded in agreement. "However, I advise against going alone, or going with me."

"The drow thing?"

"I meant you being as you are will attract attention, and me being a drow would attract more attention." Cibelle explained. "I think taking Cinnamon is the best thing, if we consider others' safety, probably Elior."

"I am not that bad, am I?" Zaria asked.

She got two pointed looks in return.

"It's not intentional?" She tried to defend.

"Mistress, you are a walking bundle of beautiful chaos." Cibelle tried to explain.

Cinnamon nodded. "You have that challenging feeling of a predator to your graceful movement."

Cibelle continued. "Understand that you look like a little girl even if your knowledge and power are anything but those of a little girl."

Cinnamon nodded. "Anyone would want to take you away, Mistress. I gave into temptation myself when you asked me to become your pet, Mistress." The bunny turned a bright red but continued to look at her Mistress.

"I understand. I'll take Cinnamon, I don't want to bother explaining to Elior that I have so many more classes then I told her."

Cibelle nodded, having suspected such. Cinnamon however was curious. "How many do you have, Mistress?"

Zaria gave her bunny an examining look. "If I reply to this you will tie yourself forever to me, until such a time my name is known enough that secrets such as that my classes don't matter anymore and my reputation is sufficient that I will be able do whatever I want whenever I want."

Cinnamon swallowed, the intense focus piercing through her. She felt that she was selling her soul, tying herself to someone far greater than herself. It was fine, she had already pledged herself before, and she was fine with it. After all she got to visit places she would never get to see normally. And her Mistress was amusing. She was also very scatter-brained.

"You just thought something rude, did you?"

And she could read minds too now?

"Not really, I can sort of see or guess surface thoughts if I focus really hard."

That was embarrassing.

"It is fine, makes finding out what you really like much easier. Like nibbling on the ear tips makes you relaxed and easier to get into the mood, but it is the base of the ears that gets you really going."

She had wondered how her Mistress had figured her body out so quickly, and why she knew all the small spots she had no idea about. She regretted nothing, she belonged to her Mistress.

"You are welcome then." Zaria had that weird look that people had when they were checking their character sheet. "Base Classes or Prestige Classes?" She asked her two maids.

"Both? And total level?" Cibelle chimed in, her interest peaked after all.

Zaria leaned back. "Let's get you a few levels, level 5 or 6 would be perfect. Then I will answer some of these questions." She pulled her two maids closer. "But I have ranger levels as well, and rogue levels as well. Both are epic too. And for certain reasons, I have the elven only Arcane Archer prestige class as well." She gave a foxy smirk. "All of them are epic naturally. But my wizard is non epic."

"There is more?" Cinnamon asked wide eyed.

"Yes, there is, use your fantasy." Zaria gave both an affectionate yet possessive squeeze. "I do have memories, but they are of other worlds and other places. How do I know they are different worlds? Different gods, different geography."

"So that is why you were so keen on studying geography." Cibelle realized. "You did not read onto religion deeply though."

"I learned of three gods soon, aside from my fluffy one." Zaria explained. "Mirula, Luuria, and Lyx'yxy. Not knowing and never having heard of three important Goddesses? Improbable. The geography is so different from any of the four realms I remember that I know it is a different one. Now I already said too much since I trust you two. But now we need to level you hard."

Both maids suddenly felt the promise of pain, exhaustion, and adventure. While they knew their Mistress would not let them die, or would resurrect them in the worst case. It wasn't going to be a pleasant experience.

"It is fine to feel scared." Zaria gave them a sad smile. "But unfortunately, the pain and feeling of dying are a part of it." She gave them a tired look. "And I died many times."

------

Breakfast was eaten in a sombre mood.

Elior felt it too.

Towards the end however. "I wish breakfast was longer, I am not looking forward to retrieving a loli sex golem some weirdo ancestor made or ordered." Zaria blew the mood away and made Elior choke on her tea.

"You did that on purpose!"

"Are you accusing me of waiting all this time just to have the perfect moment to say that so you choke on your tea?"

"Yes!"

"Then you are right."

For a second Elior was stunned. Then she sighed, why did she expect anything less. "So that is not a joke?"

"Unfortunately, not."

"And what are you going to do with it?"

"Dress it up."

Elior wondered if she should mention that those were really expensive, and would net her a lot of gold probably. But then decided that having Zaria use it as a dress up doll was actually much better.
The irony of one of those being used as a doll for clothes instead of its actual use was something she did not want to spend time upon.

------

After breakfast the four females went to Zaria's study. There two shelves were quickly cleared of books. Then moved the shelves away from the wall.

The two maids and curious add on were watching as the kitsune lifted the two shelves out of the way, revealing dust, spider webs, and a slightly discoloured wall. It made both maids itch to get over there and clean the mess up. Much to their displeasure Zaria had no qualms in poking, prodding, and running her hands over the wall. She then used a knife to dig what seemed to be edges of a large door into the wall. It was amusing to see her stick to the wall by bracing against a shelf. It offered Cinnamon a really good view up her Mistress dress when she cleared some of the plaster and paint away that had dropped during her Mistress machinations. It gave her a lot of ideas of what to try next.

Cinnamon reacted instantly when her Mistress was back on the ground and handed over her feather duster.

Zaria smacked the duster against the wall.

With a click and a slight cracking sound, in the middle of the door shape Zaria carved into the wall, a long crack opened.

Elior had worked with rogues before, but smacking a feather duster into a door to open it? That was a new one. She suspected that the white menace had used a Knock spell in truth.

Zaria meanwhile stared in confusion at the duster in her hand. "I guess reflex? I actually have my own dagger now." She handed the duster back, then shaped her fingers into claws and used those to pry open the door.

The two maids frowned at the dust in the room and the stale air, they frowned even more when Zaria showed no remorse getting her dress dusty. Cibelle went and opened the window, Cinnamon quickly left, brooms and dustpans were needed.

Zaria on the other hand busied herself with disarming a pressure plate connected to a blade trap. Removing the blade required ripping some of the wall open. But she was not going to let a disabled trap endanger her maids, the two whom she could see literally glare at the dirty room.

After an extended search of the room. "Room is clean of traps." Zaria announced. "The room itself has been sealed for at least a century."

"That is very fascinating, but you need a bath now, Mistress. And your new doll needs one too."

Zaria looked down. Her dress was dusty and she had webs hanging off it. It proved that dresses were not meant for trappers when they were loose and past ankle long. Her shrine maiden outfit would have fared much better.

It seemed that the rogue instincts were not meant for long dresses.

She knew a lost battle when she saw one. She went to the bed and lifted the doll from the bed. The two were right, whatever colour her new toy had, was hidden under greyish brown dust.

"Bath it is, I need to wash her before I can dress her up." Zaria agreed. Her bounty in her arms she used a 'Mage Hand' to open the door and walked out without waiting.

Cibelle sighed. "Cinnamon, get that room cleaned up, I'll take care of our Mistress and her new … doll?" Cibelle was not sure what to call the short grey something.

Elior found herself alone in the study suddenly. Everyone had something to do, everyone but her. Not for the first time she wondered what she was doing here. She felt overlooked. Was she already relegated to the background unless she acted up?

She was a level 14 high elven cleric that was normally the centre of attention.

Being ignored stung.

------

In her bath Zaria placed her cargo in a bathtub and used a bucket of water to rinse the worst off. It also caused her to see the cracks in the skin and the rather dried out and shrunken flesh. "Poor you. You are in worse shape than I expected."

Zaria glanced at the mouth. "Let's get you clean before I activate you."

Finally, Cibelle caught up. "You dirtied the tub." She accused Zaria.

Zaria rolled her eyes. "Help me get all this dust off her. You are just annoyed it is dirty and now you don't want to join in the tub."

"The skin is cracked." Cibelle ignored her Mistress's accusation. "Will skin cream help or does she need more complex help?"

"She is meant to emulate flesh, so later on you can experiment. For now, I am letting her soak. I think she already improved a little." Zaria poked the stomach. "Clearly she is getting better. I am going to use 'Repair Light Damage' a few times. Maybe that will seal the skin back up once she soaks up some more."

"I will prepare the second bathtub Mistress." Cibelle announced.

"Actually, I forgot to ask. Why do I have two tubs?"

"The small one is for washing. The large one for soaking and relaxing, or playing with your naughty maid."

Zaria gave the large pleasure tub a pondering look. "Looks a bit too large to be cosy."

"You can always kidnap a certain clerics' little sisters and put them in the tub so a certain repressed cleric follows."

"Better, but I am not convinced. Lessens the cosy romantic feeling. Guess lazing side by side it is."

"You have salts and essences."

"A day of pampering ourselves? Let's do it once the little one is activated and force Elior to come along." Zaria petted the little one on the head. Then looked at the hand covered with grey water. "I think her real hair colour is black."

Cibelle was gently and methodically washing her way up the lifeless body. "I think so as well."

The two continued the work. A change of water later the worst was cleaned up, and the golem had clearly absorbed a lot of water as it did not look as dried out any more. It was still looking a bit dehydrated. But it looked well enough for Zaria to feel confident in its functionality. Several cracks were repaired.

"Actually, inviting Elior does not sound fun, too much whining."

"She requires being corrupted first."

------

Elior was watching maids attack the dirty room a fanatic fervour when she suddenly felt insulted.

"Zaria, I don't know what you said. But I know it was not polite." The cleric complained.

She did not know that the maids were using her as a favoured topic.

Their current favourite was that the cleric had fallen for their Mistress but was too shy to act on it since their social standing was so different.

Another was that she was just looking for some action with a kitsune shrine maiden like in all those erotic stories.

------

"Mistress, I want to check on something. I will leave you two alone for a bit."

"Okay?" Zaria did not know what was going on. But now that she was in the tub with the finally normal looking golem Cibelle had adopted a strange searching look. It was as if she were comparing her, the golem, and something from memory. If it was important. Then her maid would explain later, probably. Unless it was something worth being teased over.

Now that her maid was gone. It was time to activate her golem. Honestly, she found the procedure annoying. Bodily fluids were required, salvia was not sufficient.

Honestly, Zaria thought, whoever had had that idea deserved to be fireballed.

Still with a certain reluctance she proceeded with the activation.

------

When the thoughtful Cibelle returned, she found herself at the receiving end of an analysing stare from lifeless green eyes.

"That is Cibelle, she is mine." Zaria said as she was washing the hair of the golem.

"I will wash your hair Mistress." Cibelle volunteered eagerly. The white hair was really pleasant to the touch and against the skin, and it was so long that you had lots to play with.

"I named her Annabelle, inspired by a certain cursed doll from a story from a different world, feel free to call her Anna." Zaria said leaning forward and hugging the golem that was finally approaching a normal body temperature as opposed to room temperature.

Cibelle washed the long white mane with enjoyment. She decided to skip on the tail, she had seen what that did to her Mistress, and now was unfortunately not the time for it. That and she would pay for it if she did it, probably.

It would be a nice punishment, probably.

She got to help with drying the tail at least. And she understood her Mistress having the Fluffy Lover flaw or whatever the actual name was better now.

There was something really calming about petting a tail, and nibbling on those fluffy ears was rather fun.

The golem was watching everything. Cataloguing it and marking it for future reference. The owner had activated her during a cleaning process. The owner was female. The owner had another female.

"Annabelle, this is Cibelle. You are to obey her orders, unless they endanger her, endanger you, endanger anyone I tell you that matters, or endanger me." Zaria frowned for a moment. "Not sure what could endanger me actually."

"Not much probably?" Cibelle guessed. "I brought a nightgown for Anna, it will be much too loose, but better than anything else for now."

The small golem looked very adorable swimming in the huge nightgown. Zaria fought the urge to feed her milk and a cookie. "Do I have old dresses anywhere? I should be able to fit something for her quickly."

"I will find something; I think one of the older maids said something about rooms full of old things." Cibelle seemed unsure.

"Wonderful! If you find it, I'll take a look too later." Zaria pointed at the huge piles of clothes, one now having a blue drow made pillow on top. "It would be far easier than making something from those."

"I am not sure the easy is an issue, Mistress."

"Fine, it would be much faster."

"I will be back soon Mistress"

"Good luck."

Then Zaria and Annabelle started to stare into each other's eyes. Annabelle’s green unblinking ones and Zaria's bright red ones examined the opposite ones. Zaria's irises opened a little more, the golem's eyes remained unmoving and unchanging.

"Kon?" Yuki emerged from her den and came over to smell the new arrival.

Annabelle changed her line of sight to the arctic fox on the ground. She was inspecting the fluffy creature.

"Yuki meet Annabelle. Anna, this is Yuki, she is my familiar. Her race is arctic fox. My race is kitsune."

"Mistress, I found two rooms full of old dresses." Cibelle announced as she returned. "I picked something out, but you should probably visit them yourself considering your taste for clothing and your fluffy tail." The smallest of the piles was the one that had been deemed usable and to be adjusted. The smallest by several magnitudes. The largest pile was a fox den made from what was meant to be pawned off or discarded.

"Come here Anna, let’s try out what Cibelle brought us." Zaria had the golem raise her arms to remove the nightgown. The dress was a nice embroidered one. It was a bit tight in the chest.

"Was I that small, or is she that large?" Zaria wondered.

"I think her creator took some liberties with the chest size, while she is small her chest is probably at the top of what human that age can have or a bit more."

Zaria gave the golem a critical look, at 10 cm smaller, the chest was probably a little larger and rounder. "Anna was made either by a pervert or commissioned by a pervert." Zaria decided, and picked the remade summer dress for herself.

Zaria then sat the small golem in the love seat and ordered her. "Sit here quietly, whenever someone enters if they are not on the important people list, just stare at them until someone important tells you not to."

The door opened, and Cinnamon rolled in a trolley with tea and a pile of letters so high that only the ears were visible from behind it. It looked really amusing. "I brought your letters, the other maids decided it was a good chance to dust all the books and clean everything." The ears said. "You can use it again tomorrow the earliest. Do you have any plans for the spare room?"

------

Meanwhile Elior was watching a horde of eager maids take to the study and newly found hidden room like a horde of locusts to a corn field.

Books were taken from shelves, books were dusted, shelves were dusted, while lamenting how the room had no windows the maids discussed possible uses for it, filing room and personal library were having a close match with the love nest for when the mistress needed a break, or had someone over.

There were even talks of a panic room in case the mansion got assaulted.

Elior really pitied the poor fools attacking the mansion.

Worse if they harmed someone the white menace considered hers.

It was something that might be interesting to watch, from a safe distance, with spy glasses. The maids were certainly amusing.

------

Zaria pondered for a moment. "Maybe move the books and such there, and also build a small museum for the funnier cursed things I find? One of those adventure museums? Or misadventures? Not sure where else I could place the things I want to keep, they are not really shrine material, unless I make a building as a museum for people to enter and see the items. That could however draw attention of the wrong kind."

The ears twitched. "Order and install a few vitrines, make a proper door so people can't walk in and get cursed accidentally, anyone going in and getting into a mess will deserve it."

Zaria wondered why the ears seemed so eager, she was not sure she wanted to know what her social maid imagined. "Maybe an 'enter at your own risk' sign? It would allow me to ask anyone who complains later 'Can you read?' and remove me from liability."

"Maybe a sign with the cost of removing curses too."

"A small shrine to her fluffiness in the middle. It would be nice to have a dedicated shrine, even if I don't use it much."

The ears came from behind the letters, with an eager Cinnamon attached to them. "Sounds nice, the room is large enough, keep the reference books and often used books in your study. Everything else in the new room?" the revealed bunny trailed off confused. "Mistress, is that the grey golem you found?"

"Not so grey now." Zaria saw her two maids share a look. "Okay, out with it. What is going on? Ever since she got washed up you two have been acting weird."

"Follow us Mistress. I had wondered if it was just my imagination." Cibelle said instead of explaining.

Zaria looked from Cibelle to Cinnamon and back. "Something I have to see? Annabelle, this is Cinnamon, her orders rank below Cibelle's and mine. Otherwise treat her as more important as anyone else. Cinnamon meet Annabelle, just call her Anna."

"Welcome Annabelle, is the chest tight?"

"Yes, it is Cinnamon." came the very monotone reply.

"She speaks?" Cinnamon wondered. "Do you like tea? Can you even drink?"

"I never had tea; drinking is among my functions."

Zaria looked surprised at how well Cinnamon and Annabelle interacted. "Come Annabelle, let's follow them and take a look at what they want to show us."

The clueless duo followed the two maids, down one corridor, across the main entrance hall towards the public parts of the house, up a set of stairs.

They arrived at the ancestor’s gallery. The first thing on Zaria's mind was the black hair monotony. If she followed the names, every one of the line had black hair. Going by the dates she was really from an old family. She figured like some four centuries, maybe five. For a human line it was a lot. Interestingly all portraits came in child, girl, adult, and elder variations, with a small text who the person was and what it had done.

"You know … I can see my 'a bit more feral or foxy' face in a lot of the ancestors." Zaria stopped at a set of portraits. The female in this one had a slightly predatory look on her face. To the two maids the resemblance was clear.

"Mistress, this way, it is a little further in." Cibelle led the way.

Yet more portraits followed, the hair black, their spouse’s hair often something else. The eye colours however changed a lot. From common blue, brown, and green, the rarer grey, black, and even red, and finally the exotic ones like pink, rose, yellow, orange, purple, and such in all shades.

She was checking out the next set, mentally comparing it to herself and the females before when she was suddenly forced to stop. She turned to Annabelle and back to the portrait she was in front of. "I think I know what you mean now." She admitted. "Annabelle, please stand next to this portrait and turn our way."

The golem complied.

The three stared at the portrait of the young girl and the young-looking golem next to it.

"Someone get my father now!" Zaria ordered.

"I will be right back." Cinnamon confirmed and hurried off to get the Duke.

------

In Zaria's study Elior frowned. She had clearly been forgotten.

The high elven cleric was disappointed and relieved. One because they simply left her behind without a word. The other because she was away from the white menace.

However, she had her mission. She rose from the very comfortable couch and made her way to Zaria's room.

There she found the room empty aside from the normal chaos and Yuki on top of a blue pillow on top of the biggest pile of clothes.

"Where are they?"

"Kon?"

"Sorry, did I wake you?"

"Kon."

"Where are they?"

Yuki flicked her tail at the door.

Elior slumped for a moment, before correcting her posture. "I'll check the library, then the outside." She waved at Yuki who raised a paw.

------

Zaria was amusing herself by comparing her new doll to her ancestor. There were a few key differences. The chest was the biggest one, really the biggest one actually.

The eyes were the next change, they were lifeless on the golem, yet seemed happy and alive in the painting.

Then there was the posture, the girl in the painting wanted to run off. The golem was rigid and waiting for her next order.

"You called for me, daughter." The Duke was following Cinnamon at a leisurely pace. Then he stopped and gave the little one a visual examination. "I see."

"You do?" Zaria questioned.

"But I don't understand." The Duke admitted.

"I guess someone was a pervert who loved her bit too much." Zaria tried to guess.

"I think I have read something about an ancestor who was fond of young ones. He kept an elf concubine I think." He pondered for a bit. "It was in the back, in the diaries section of the family only part of the library."

"I don't think I have been there yet."

"It is a private part." The Duke explained. "I will show you later … Actually, you can find it in my office. I know of one hidden room, of two hidden doors aside from the one to the hidden room, and finally a hidden safe, that holds nothing of value."

"How many hidden rooms are there in this mansion?" Zaria wondered. "I really need to check it out from top to bottom."

"It would be good to know everything." With that the Duke turned away and left. "You need a new painting made actually." He stopped and called out.

"That was abrupt." Cinnamon commented. "And he gave you permission to search his study and the mansion."

"He is direct about things."

"Searching the mansion is on the list actually." Cinnamon remembered.

Zaria looked around. "I want to see what I looked like before actually."

"You are this way, one floor down." Cibelle pointed toward the staircase.

The quartet walked and finally arrived at their destination.

Zaria examined her past self. "I can see myself in her, my face is a little sharper, I lost a lot of colour too, I mean the hair was black, the eyes were blue. My skin was pale, but not as pale as it is now."

"Your breasts were bigger too." Cibelle compared.

"I will grow up again sometime." Zaria mentioned, then corrected. "In the very far future."

Neither Cibelle nor Cinnamon decided to comment.

"You saw what I will look like in the future!" Zaria countered. "Even if it will take me a long time. I feel too small." She looked around. "The women of my family were not the tallest, but I am too small." She sighed. "My little one is almost as tall as me but she is based on a younger girl than I am."

"You should probably make clothes for your older shape or shapes." Cibelle offered a practical suggestion.

"The work never ends, does it?" Zaria whined.

"You have a tail now, that needs a lot of work." Cibelle reminded her.

"Yet you love my tail."

"It is fluffy." Cibelle admitted.

"So, I have to work on clothes, possibly make clothes for my adult shape, read family history to find out more about Annabelle, and finally search the mansion from top to bottom." Zaria expanded the list.

"And have you decided what to do first?" Cinnamon asked. "You also forgot to mention the letters."

Zaria rubbed temples. "Oh yes, huge pile of letters, honestly I was more focused on the ears." She smiled at the bunny that was turning red. "Yes, I really enjoy the ears, but you are adorable and I really enjoy your presence." Zaria visibly perked up, she hugged Cibelle. "And then there is you." She gave the taller maid a hug and stopped speaking. The words did not need to be spoken.

"Time to get the letters done."

------

Elior had checked the library, she was now checking the surrounding gardens.

Her next guess they had teleported again. Probably they were at Trianna again. This meant however that she was free to do as she wished.

That meant she had a letter to write.

------

The three started sorting letters. By date and sender.

After some time suddenly a small hand reached past Zaria, it picked up a letter, and set it onto a different pile.

The trio shared looks, then Zaria stepped aside and let the golem come to the desk. It worked slowly, clearly going more by comparison then by understanding. It was clearly a learning process. Sometimes she poked Zaria when she was unsure where to put something.

"Oh!" Cinnamon's ears stood really at attention. "Mistress! This is important!"

"Hmm?" Zaria looked up from the letter she had just examined.

"Sender is: Marielle van Aschen." Cinnamon announced.

Everyone but the golem looked at the letter. After a few moments the golem looked at it too. It was clear however that she had no idea why.

"I guess this is a 'read this one first' situation." Zaria was not sure what she felt. "Excuse me for a moment." She took the really heavy letter and went to her desk, she checked the seal, it seemed legit enough. She morphed a fingernail into a claw and slit it open.

Taking several double-sided sheets of paper from the envelope she wondered what someone she had never met, and at best only had heard about her from Elior, could write so much about.

A surprisingly long-time later Zaria put the letter down. With a confused look on her face she announced. "I got ranted at? How I make no sense and I should not exist as I am?" She gave the letter a confused look. "I have to say she is smart, from what little Elior sent her she found out more than I expected." Zaria took the letter and shuffled to the back. "Do either of you know anything about cowgirls?"

Both maids were confused at the change of topic. Annabelle was just standing there waiting for instruction.

"Seems Marielle has a cowgirl maid, and she suspects that she is drinking her milk, something that is often a sign of affection and more. At least according to a book, she peeked into, but has not managed to read yet. She also accused me of being a pervert, everyone being perverts, and how she keeps finding out embarrassing things she never wanted to know."

"She is right." Cinnamon's ears were twitching. "Cowgirls offer their pure milk to family, lovers, mates, children, or as a sign of honour." She started turning red. "Directly drinking for the breast is for children and lovers only. If you are an adult and a cowgirl lets you drink directly from her, then that is like a marriage proposal, … more like an invitation to mate." Cinnamon finished with a small stutter and a beet red face.

Zaria blinked, then tilted her head. "I am going to have so much fun with this information." She pulled out her stationary, taking the nice paper she prepared herself. "I understand the poor girl is confused, and that I don't fit into her small sheltered worldview. But I don't appreciate being ranted at." The type of smile crossed Zaria's face that always put Elior onto defence, or actually made her want to run away and hide. "This gives me something to take revenge with. Now how to be truthful, but paint it in the most suggestive way possible?"

"Dear Marielle,
Thank you for the rant!"

Both Cibelle and Cinnamon winced.

"Congratulations however on figuring out so much. Yes, I am an abnormality that is actually impossible. However, onto the important parts of your letter.
My sweet little bunny sexpet, those ears are so adorable, they are really enjoyable to chew on, knows a bit about cowgirls."

Cinnamon felt her face heat up again. She remembered her Mistress gently nibbling and biting her ears. It made her feel very tingly again. Especially the ears felt the promise of more enjoyment.

"Does your personal moo watch you, touch you, rub her chest against you, and stick it out a lot? If these are a yes, then you have a cowgirl that wants you to drink from her directly probably. Naturally any race would do similar things if they liked you. Humans would probably compliment you more, cats would rub more against you, dogs would demand your attention, and high elves would stay close but act all high. Unless she sees you as a child that needs being cared for."

That caused winces. It was not really rude, but it implied that either she was clueless for not seeing it, or she was a child.

"Back to the technical side. Yes, you inferred correctly that I am an epic sorcerer, an epic shrine maiden, and the rest? Take a guess."

The Mistress had clearly switched from annoyed to teasing. More writing followed; it was done silently.

Then came a pause.

"How does this sound? 'Did your father have to send someone as stubborn as Elior? I had to put her in her place after she threatened my sweet loyal drow lover.' Or should I reword it?"

Cibelle felt the nice warmth of her being mentioned so affectionately. "Maybe you should explain that I was hiding my race before?"

"Good point." Zaria agreed.

Cinnamon added. "And mention that Cibelle had been your personal maid for several years."

Zaria gave the letter a critical look. Then she pulled out normal paper sheets. "I should write a draft first, then resort and clean it. But I will still make fun of her. I need some revenge."

The two maids shared a look of agreement. This was totally their playful and a little vindictive Mistress.

"Not sure what I could respond to her being locked up so much. Technically I should have never been to Trianna or the Underdark." Zaria confessed.

Cibelle was the one to respond. "You could simply tell her your misadventures, how a day off led to catching a band of thieves?"

"Good idea, also how wandering around unsupervised led to me having to remove a racist from existence."

"And how you punished the guards." Cinnamon remembered.

"Good idea, she is a wizard, so some creative spell use."

Zaria started scribbling much faster on the new papers.

A knock on the door made Cibelle interrupt sorting the letters and open the door. "Lunch is ready. Does the Lady wish to eat in her room or at the dining table?" A maid announced.

"I'll eat here, I need to fix more dresses after I finish this letter."

"We have a messenger run the afternoon mail to the city, he is leaving in about two hours." The unknown maid, a human, explained.

"Perfect, I will be done before that." Zaria said.

Zaria continued scribbling. "Should I add the dangers and emphasize how great they would be for someone who is not me?"

Cinnamon agreed. "Yes, Mistress you could also tell about the misunderstanding with the adventurers."

"The squirrel was fluffy." Zaria remembered the most important part of the encounter.

"And the traumatized sheep."

"Fiola has good wine." Cibelle remembered.

"She does." Cinnamon agreed. "You pranked Elior."

Cibelle corrected however "Stole her underwear you mean."

"Elior was amusing all accusing and holding down her dress." Zaria remembered.

The maids made agreeing sounds.

There was another knock on the door. After Cibelle opened the door the previous maid entered with a trolley with covered dishes placed on it. "Mistress, your lunch is served. Today's lunch is trout with garlic and herbs. Potatoes and a green salad with tomatoes to finish. Dessert is a chocolate cake. The chef added a bottle of white slightly sour wine."

"Sounds good. Cibelle, Cinnamon, after I finish, take a break you two and eat something … Annabelle, do you eat actually?"

The golem turned to Zaria. "I am not required to eat food often; I need to replenish liquids regularly however."

"So, you can eat. Go with Cibelle and Cinnamon and see if there is anything you like."

"Like?" came the monotone question.

"Seems better, feels better, or is more pleasant." Zaria tried to explain. "You will know when you experience it."

The golem did not respond, the order was given so she shifted to watching the two maids. Having finished sorting the mail, Cinnamon was cleaning the bathroom, and Cibelle was dusting and checking the room. "Mistress, I think you wanted to Identify the items on this pile."

"I'll sort them after the letter." Said Zaria as she checked the delicious smelling trout. Her stomach felt empty, she realized, she wondered if her metabolism was higher. Her slender frame should not be able to eat as much as she did. Then again Mrr'am ate a lot too. It was time to tuck in.

After finishing her lunch, she went back to the draft for the return letter. She checked it over again, making notes on where to expand and where to move parts. Now after the first reading she felt a bit calmer, but she was still going to tease Marielle something fierce.

------

Elior did not want to admit it. But being all alone at the large dining table felt lonely.

There were two maids watching her. But she was the only one who was eating.

The white menace was good at relaxing people she realized. She missed the cursed furball and her antics.

------

With a glare at the writing utensils, she missed her computer and e-mail. Even a normal pen would have been nice, maybe she should carve one. She started on the proper letter.

She finished quickly, and suddenly realized she had no idea what to do with it. Looking around the maids were not back yet, that meant she was clueless about what to do with her letter. Her two maids had really made her dependent on them quickly.

With a mental shrug she decided to ignore what she couldn't change for now and started looking over the loot from idiotic drow. The money was checked over for amounts, the silver pieces were getting out of hand, soon she would need vaults to store the coins. It was probably time to spend them. The gems were sorted into her desk.

The scrolls were read and sorted as to what she could inscribe into her spellbook and what she couldn't.

Next were the small potion vials, she scrutinized one of them, the whitish silvery sheen was familiar, it was at the tip on her tongue. 'Potion of Shield of Faith +3' was what she had in her hand; it was worth 300gp. Zaria stared at the potion confused. Without the Identify spell she should not have been able to do that.

Curious she picked up another potion, trying to infer the type, it was a brownish one that looked familiar too, it was a simple 'Potion of Bear's Endurance'. That clearly meant something.

She continued to read the potions. It was really nice as she did not have to spend an hour on each, and no need to waste SL1 spell slots. She was going to keep the spell however in case someone ever wanted her to identify something, and she was not too fond of that person. It also gave her the excuse to charge whoever for the spell, the wine, and the pearl.

Still that meant something had changed, something that was not a feat.

And it required further experimentation.

She picked up the shortspear.

She started examining it, clearly it was magical, the material seemingly too hard for mere wood. Also, the sharpness was off, something about it seemed truer, like it wanted to strike somewhere. A minute later she knew it. It was +1 Keen Shortspear. Zaria figured her insane Appraise value allowed her to figure out more information if she took her time.

Curious, she picked up the other items.

You are reading story Lets Explore and Enjoy at novel35.com

Zaria relaxed in her seat a few minutes later. She complained to Yuki. "I just did 9 hours of work in maybe 10 minutes. Wish I had known earlier. But that means I have to push all skills to their limits." She grumbled. "I probably did the same with crafting, working faster than should be possible normally." She rose and walked to her familiar. Petting the soft familiar she pondered. "I mean I knew about the Tumble high enough to negate all fall damage. I remembered it from my former life as an idle curiosity, I really need to throw myself off those drow towers to check. I thought during sex that Perform (Yuri) allowed me to read my partner better and get some of their thoughts. I guess the mind reading is from Sense Motive since we did not have sex this time. But what else is there? Oh right, I kept on getting faster and faster while sewing."

"This is fun!" Zaria decided. Things were not as clear now. She still had a lot to learn about herself. Things a character sheet did not explain. How much she wanted a copy of the epic level handbook now. "I need to hand this to a maid. Back in a bit Yuki."

It did not take long for Zaria to track down a maid. "I need this posted as a fast and secure letter." She told the frozen maid. "I got done faster than expected."

"This way please. The mail is brought to the city by a pair of fast guards on horses." The maid explained as she led her small mistress. "The secretary will take care of posting it." They arrived at a door next to her father's study. The maid knocked then announced. "The young Lady needs to post a letter."

"Enter." A firm female voice replied.

The maid opened the door and let Zaria into the room.

The study was clean, everything seemed sorted neatly, and totally free of anything to add life to the place.

In one-word organized boredom.

Rising from the desk was an adult human female with pink hair.

Zaria gave the short oddly coloured hair a good look.

"The hair colour seems to be passed down the female line from an ancestor. It explains why we are dragon blooded enough to become sorcerers." It sounded like a well-rehearsed speech.

"I think it would look better longer, but that might be racial bias." Zaria commented.

"My name is Angela; I am head secretary for House Kairan."

"Zaria van Kairan, daughter of Duke Kairan."

"You require a letter posted?"

"Marielle van Aschen sent me an express letter, so I felt I should respond in kind." Zaria handed the letter to the maid beside her, who then handed it to the secretary.

"I will have this sent with the afternoon mail. Typically, it should arrive tomorrow or day after the latest." She frowned mentally at the 10 gp an express letter cost.

"I will have someone deposit the 100 sp later." Zaria realised she had been focussing a bit too much on the secretary. That money thought had been very heavily on the secretary's mind. "Now it seems there are some financial issues with the House Kairan. Please elaborate." Zaria plopped in the seat opposite the secretary's and gave the woman a pointed look. "And no excuses. I already figured my reincarnation was expensive. How bad is the damage really?"

"The Kairan Duchy is financially stable. House Kairan however has a debt of 128653 gp to House Aschen."

"From my personal reserves let's donate 15000 cp and 15000 sp. That should be enough for current expenses and until I have more time to look into the issues." Zaria offered. "Anything else I need to know about?"

"Several family treasures were sold off." The secretary replied.

Zaria nodded. "Make a list of those that are actually tasteful and not ugly or gaudy things without any finesse. I will try to get those back." Zaria then pondered a bit. "Do we have any credible traders? Not leeches like that weapon trader two days ago."

"A leech?"

"Yes, he tried to overcharge me by 600 gp." Zaria reported.

The secretary frowned.

"I bought everything in another city instead, and only got overcharged by 3gp." Zaria tried to remember. "Though I spanked her for that."

Angela stopped. "What?"

"I spanked her for overcharging me."

Angela mulled on it for a moment. Then decided to ignore it. "How much were they overcharging compared to the original price?"

"The trader here, by 25%." Zaria mulled over it. "The spanked one by like less than 1%."

"What do you wish to sell?"

"The big pile of clothes that Yuki is using as her den."

"What?"

"I can't use them and reworking them would be too much work or their style is just terrible and not worth reworking." Zaria mentioned. "The pillow on top is not for sale."

"You are supposed to keep presents." The secretary mentioned. "It is polite."

"Keep absolutely useless things? I have some magical items that need to be sold too." Zaria said.

"What?"

"From a venture into the underdark."

"..." The look Zaria got from the secretary was clearly doubting.

Suddenly Zaria had an idea. "You don't get out much, do you?"

While the woman had a good poker face, to someone like Zaria it was easy to read. Her words had hit critically.

"You don't listen to gossip either, I guess."

"Gossip is irrelevant." The secretary confirmed indirectly.

Zaria however gave her a look of pity. "It is a part of socializing." She explained. "It would have also given you more of an insight into my latest escapades." She looked at the maid that was standing at attention and waiting to be dismissed. "Why don't you fill her in on what is pretty much confirmed, and then on the rest of it that is not."

"As you wish, my Lady." The maid gave the secretary a look very similar to one a wolf would give a sheep. "Now first is the confirmed race change of the young Lady. I think black bows in the hair would be better than deep red, which would accent the eyes more."

Zaria felt the plea for mercy and vow of revenge radiating from the serious woman. Though it suited her right for not doing her research. "Don't forget to send my letter, and I'll send you the money later."

------

Satisfied with having sicked the maid on the disbeliever, Zaria wandered back towards her room.

There she found Yuki demanding to be let out, which she did. She gave the letters on the table an annoyed look, but sat down with a sigh. The names were unfamiliar, some felt annoying, some comfortable, one felt warm and amusing. Nyrth van Hausden had a pleasant relaxing feeling, and a not so relaxing huge pile of letters.

Zaria decided to wait on her maids with the letters. Some information on the who is who would be nice. It would help with responding to the letters as well.

That left her with nothing to do and all alone. She walked over to the dress pile, sorting through it she looked for an easy to adjust dress. She found a nice red skirt and white blouse, that appealed colour wise to the shrine maiden in her.

Now she just had to find the sewing kit the maids had hidden somewhere.

Cibelle knocked, and after a muffled noise entered. Only to see her Mistress peer into her nightstand, then close it and look under the bed.

"Uhm?" Cinnamon was also confused.

Annabel stepped past the two maids and stopped next to her owner.

"What are you looking for? If you need anything you simply need to ask Mistress." Cibelle interrupted the search.

Zaria rose. "I was trying to find the sewing kit."

"That is in the maids’ ready room." Cibelle responded, then added. "You never had a personal one, as you were never really interested in sewing, your embroidery chest is in my room, but it has less content than the sewing kit."

Zaria huffed annoyed. "You two make me far too dependent on you!" She accused her maids.

The ears seemed to twitch happily on Cinnamon, and Cibelle gave her Mistress a smile that sent a shiver down the kitsunes spine and tail. "That means we are doing our job correctly, Mistress. A perfect maid is one her Mistress can't live without." Cibelle explained.

"I'm doomed?" Zaria wondered.

"Mistress is blessed with two loyal and devoted maids that do everything for her."

"Un Un!" Cinnamon made an agreeing sound and gave her Mistress a wide smile.

Zaria let herself fall onto her bed. "Yep, doomed and happy about it." She looked over to the golem that seemed lost and confused. Actually, she stood there expressionless. "Did you find something that you like?"

"Mint tea with honey." Came the instantaneous reply.

"She also had a bit of soup, but clearly mint tea with honey won over black tea and water." Cinnamon reported.

"That means you like it more than the others." Zaria explained. "I need to work through these letters. So, who is who?" Zaria waved a hand towards the table.
"For some reason one name caught my attention. Nyrth van Hausden."

"Ah, she is the closest thing to a friend old Zaria had." Cibelle frowned. "Or was?"

Cinnamon however started rattling off facts about the person. "Daughter of Baron Hausden. A rather poor Barony, she is bound to a wheelchair after an accident involving a horse and a prank by the rich daughter of Earl Apfel. Officially there were never any charges, but everyone 'knows' that whatever happened, was due to Earl Apfel. The daughter was far too smug about the whole thing."

Zaria felt a pang of sadness in her chest, and something like remorse and a feeling of failure. "This is interesting. It clearly resonates in me, a feeling of sadness and remorse coupled with sadness." She frowned. "It is very unpleasant."

"As she was your friend it might be sadness over what had happened. And because it was impossible for you to have helped her?" Cibelle pondered. "You indulged her a lot and insisted on her dropping formalities."

"Do you want me to gather information on everyone?" Cinnamon seemed eager for work.

"Yes, especially on Nyrth and her situation." Zaria agreed. "Seems I have a lot of letters to read."

Zaria gathered the pile and moved to her desk. "What was my relationship with that Apfel?"

Cibelle frowned. "Polite and distant, mainly her bragging about this or that, and you nodding politely." Cibelle stopped here for a moment. "My personal opinion is that you found her a nuisance and a spoiled princess."

"It matches with the annoyed and exasperated feeling I have, also some anger." Zaria slit a letter open. "I guess I will read some relaxing letters."

------

After reading through the letters Zaria had only one thing to say. "And I thought Marielle had boredom issues."

Cibelle gave her Mistress a look. "I know about her cat, how she is now trying to shoot her shortbow from her wheelchair, I got several weeks’ worth of menus, they sound simple and healthy actually. Then there is her whining about how she can't explore the garden and forest any more, and I have an in-depth description of the pavilion and the new message she has found under a bench after she fell out of her wheelchair. Finally, I know more about her financial situation than I know about my own." Zaria took a deep breath. "And the weirdest thing is: all this made me feel relaxed and amused with wanting to help her!"

"Sounds like indulging a niece or little sister?" Cibelle offered.

Zaria was about to deny it, however she closed her mouth and pulled Anna into her lap to pet the golem. "You know, maybe it is less friendship and more like affection. I figure she never liked being helped?"

"You are correct Mistress."

Zaria pulled a letter from the pile. "I have a, better than anyone should have, description of her room right here. Cibelle, I'll probably kidnap her for a chat."

"Mistress, you should read your other mail first." Cibelle chided.

"Do I have to?"

"Yes, you do."

"Evil Maid!"

"You can always punish me tonight."

"It is not punishment if you love it!"

Zaria started writing a light hearted and welcoming response. A mix between a "I am back to the living" and a "I have so much to do and so little time" with "let's meet up" mixed into it.

------

After a while Cinnamon returned. She was holding several parchments. "I am back! Mistress I have asked around." She shuffled the papers around a bit. "I have a little more on Lady Nyrth. She is generally described as polite, friendly, energetic, lively, and affectionate. She was seen hugging you on more than one occasion, it was a rare event to watch since you usually push everyone away Mistress."

"I guess something caught my attention about her, like it did with Cibelle." Zaria pondered.

"You have driven away five maids before." Cibelle informed. "I am your sixth maid, and the one holding the position the longest."

"Really?"

"Un, she forgot to mention she was the only one you did not have sarcastic words for all the time." Cinnamon added. "The old you was a very cold person, Mistress. I have only seen the old you for a few months, but the old you left an untouchable impression." How the bunny's ears could look thoughtful Zaria was not sure, but they did. "I guess that coldness is now replaced with randomness." She nodded. "You were always fair about things. You were simply more open about whom you disliked, and you showed it by being very cold to those."

"Was I that bad?"

"Worse?"

"Wonderful. Next one please." Zaria prompted.

"Do you want any order?"

"Friendly first?" Zaria looked over to Cibelle. "I honestly have no idea who is who."
Cinnamon looked through the piles and raised a smaller pile. "Ellele le Leelel."

Zaria had a rather weird look on her face when she heard that name. "I had a pet sea elemental with the name Ellele in another life."

"Really? This is not a sea elemental. She is a wood elf; the barony is in the eastern forests. Technically they fall into the Duke's realm, but mostly they are left alone." Cinnamon shuffled her notes. "She is rather quiet and likes the outdoors. Probably the reason you like her, no useless chatter, she also seems a little uncomfortable in larger gatherings."

"Sounds calm I guess." Zaria said and accepted the letters. "I'll read them then."

Cibelle and Cinnamon watched in silent fascination as their Mistress shifted her nails into sharp and thin claws and sliced the mail open with that.

Zaria lent back after a few letters. "This is interesting."

She ignored the questioning looks and continued on.

As she finished. "A riddle." Zaria waved at the letters. "The girl has secrets. She wants to be more open, but is holding herself back." Zaria started penning a response immediately. "Let's invite her over soon as well."

The maids shared a worried look. This was the playful mood. Last time a sheep got scared for life. The two maids, and with some delay golem, started sorting the money their Mistress had gathered. 15 thousand copper pieces and silver pieces were meant to help the household. That meant piling out 30000 coins. It was going to take a while. Coins were piled into 10-coin stacks, then rechecked, and 10 such stacks filled into a small coin bag, which was then tied up and labelled. It was a tedious work that got boring quickly, aside of the golem who meticulously kept on making 10-coin stacks.

Zaria meanwhile finished her second letter. "Does a meeting in three days sound realistic? Or should I ask for more?"

"Do you mean generally or Nyrth and Ellele?" Cinnamon asked.

"Both?" Zaria replied.

"Nyrth has a travel time of around two days, Ellele of three days."

"How long would it take to Trianna normally?"

"Five to six days." Cibelle replied.

"I love teleportation." Zaria decided.

"Normal people don't simply teleport, and most don't have Greater Teleportation." Cibelle reminded Zaria.

"Still, it is the only way to travel quickly … I need to prepare scrying spells … so I can figure out where to go."

"Your letter will still need one or two days to arrive if you use express, and you still need to wait for an answer as well."

"True, nothing I can do about … it?" Zaria pondered for a moment. "It is not spell abuse if the spell does what the spell should do, and I do have an adult form I have been wanting to use." Zaria mumbled. "I need the sewing kit and my silk!"

"Letters first!" Cibelle chided her distracted Mistress.

"But I will forget my idea?"

Cinnamon pulled out a fresh sheet of parchment. "What is your idea Mistress?"

"Scry the location. Teleport there, deliver a letter, wait for the reply. Visit the next person. Afterwards read replies before delivering my replies and teleporting whoever accepts, here quickly for explanations. This is strictly reserved for those my old me was fond of."

Cibelle and Cinnamon shared looks. Each one waiting for the other one to find something at fault, aside from the little time for the other side to prepare.

After several moments during only Anna made noise by making a new stack of coins Cibelle admitted defeat. "I must remind you that only you are capable of such spell use Mistress, and aside of that the little time to prepare is the only other issue."

"Details." Zaria waved it off.

Cibelle wondered what her Mistress would do if one day something could not simply be solved by throwing more magic at it.

Said Mistress was finishing off the letter.

"Next pile please!"

Cinnamon rose and looked over the pile.

Zaria heard hurried footsteps. Someone was clearly walking in a controlled stride that was lacking the grace that the maids were using. Then the door burst open. "How could …"

The loud complaint was quickly silenced by the Silence spell.

The secretary was moving her mouth, but quickly realized that no sound was heard. She settled on glaring at Zaria.

Annabelle stopped stacking coins and settled on staring as ordered.

Cibelle was glaring as the intruder had been rude to her Mistress. Cinnamon tried to glare as well, but only managed an annoyed pout.

Zaria however gave the women a stare that promised death if she did not have a good reason for disturbing them. Death or pranks.

She dispelled her Silence. "You are supposed to knock." She raised a fist and mimicked knocking on a door. "It is not that difficult. Now what brings you to my room in such a rude manner?"

It was at that moment that Angela remembered that despite having shrunk and looking more like a pet with the tail and the ears, this was still the young Lady who had reduced the crown prince into a weeping mess by telling him all his faults. Though the way the hands and nails were shifting into claws implied that depending on her answer she might get shredded. "Offense is the best defence." Her sword teacher had always said. She had been rude, that she realized, and she had broken all rules of etiquette as to how to enter someone Highers’ room, but she had an excuse, and a really good one too! "You empowered the maid to tell me all the 'facts'!" The serious woman complained, then stopped as she stared at Cibelle. "Drow?"

"That took a while. Cibelle has always been a drow, she only made it public two days ago, I think, I don't see a difference anyway." Zaria explained patiently, using the type of voice one used with small children. "If you had been listening to 'gossip' you would have known."

"Claiming Cinnamon as a sex pet?"

Cinnamon blushed but nodded happily, the ear almost wagging. "Mistress offered, and I agreed. It is very pleasurable and she lets me sleep in!"

"Aha!" Zaria declared while pointing at Cinnamon. "And now we know the truth! You just want to sleep in!"

"Wha?" Cinnamon was taken aback. Then she remembered what the new Mistress was like. "Naturally, your hair and tail are so nice against the skin, who wouldn't want to sleep and cuddle more? Bad Mistress is always leaving me to wake alone." While there was some stutter in her voice, the bunny tried to tease back.

"True, I do leave early to get my spells back. I'll roll you into Cibelle tomorrow, not fluffy but soft pillows instead." Zaria compromised.

"I want more Mistress time too!" Cibelle filed her complaint.

"I remember you saying 'Too much!' yesterday." Zaria reminded her drow lover.

Angelina saw the maid turn a light red to purple, she figured it was the drow equivalent of a blush. For the serious woman this type of playful and sexual banter was much outside her comfort zone. Eager for an escape to get the topic back on track she looked around, and found herself staring into a familiar looking face, despite being sure she had not met the small girl before, she felt reminded of the young mistress before her change.

She shuddered at the lifeless eyes staring at her.

Then she saw the neatly arranged stacks of coins.

"We are at 11200 silver pieces." Cinnamon reported after consulting one of her many parchments. "We haven't started on the copper pieces yet."

The secretary saw three more chests standing behind the open one. Suddenly the young lady teleporting all over the place and finding interesting things did not seem that unrealistic. "You really intend to offer your personal wealth for the house."

There was a sharp edge in Zaria's reply. "Did you doubt me?"

Angela froze and carefully chose her reply. "It was highly improbable, from getting reincarnated to venturing into drow lands, though now that I see Cibelle is a drow, it makes more sense."

"She is not an Underdark drow, her clan came up a long time ago." Zaria corrected.

Angela decided it was time for a strategic retreat, this room and its inhabitants did not fit into her worldview. "I will take my leave now; I'll send someone once you finish counting."

With that the serious and overwhelmed secretary left.

A few moments later Zaria broke the silence. "That was both annoying and amusing."

"Walking bundle of chaos." Cibelle reminded her.

"I was sitting!" Zaria fired back.

"Fluffy Bundle of Chaos?" Cinnamon suggested.

Zaria pondered for a bit. "Acceptable I guess?" She did not feel that the chaos was her fault, it was just being creative and being spontaneous.

"We have only one more friend to go through mail wise." Cinnamon announced. "According to my research you were probably more likely humouring her."

Cibelle instantly knew who was meant. "Tessa van Regiallan, she is two years younger. Daughter of Earl Regiallan and I think you liked how energetic she was."

"The name feels familiar, like a headache about to come and I feel like laughing from amusement?" Zaria analysed the very weird sensation.

It was only a very small pile of letters. The insides were often written hastily and full of things the weird girl had seen or heard about. The way she gushed over a pure white dress which would make her a princess was in stark contrast to the tale of how she had 'borrowed' a shortsword to practice her swings.

Zaria stared at the letters confused after she had finished them all. "I am not sure how to respond … Actually, I have an Idea."

She pulled out a fresh sheet and started writing. "Dear Tessa, I am back up and while I have not found a princess dress, I made myself a shrine maiden uniform. I have not borrowed a shortsword, but had to tell my guard captain off for giving me a bad training bow. Really, longbows are clearly the best." Zaria smirked. "I did not have a knight fight bandits for me, but there was a chapter of a stupid cult about to massacre some fluffies, I had to eradicate them. I also met a nuisance in the underdark that had got shocked and frozen to death."

The maids, back to counting money with the golems help, found it amusing how their Mistress wrote everything in a rather unbelievable way, even if it was all true and probably downplaying it.

Finally done she sealed the letters. "Mischief managed." She had a very satisfied look on her face. "Tomorrow prepare scrying spells, today going to make a shrine maiden outfit for my adult form."

"You still have neutrals, minions and fangirls to respond to." Cibelle reminded her, then watched in fascination as the tail poofed out.

"Cibelle, no using the f-word." Zaria growled as she started smoothing down her tail.

"Sorry Mistress."

"You don't sound sorry."

"It is a very curious sight."

"Oh well." Zaria stripped, and then grew and matured visibly. With a modest chest due to her slender frame she visibly matured and grew to 171 cm (5 foot 7 inch, original size 141 cm 4 foot 7 inch).

"I feel different, it still feels right, but being taller the world looks different." Zaria mumbled.

It caught Annabelle's attention. The small golem approached, clearly confused.

"Yes, it is still me, Zaria, your owner." Zaria spoke calmly. "This is just my adult shape."

The golem did not speak simply looking the taller kitsune up and down, seemingly analysing or burning the body into memory. She seemed to take longer at the patch of fur and the longer tail, she then seemed to arrive at a conclusion. "Owner verified." Slipping back into the emotionless manner she returned to the coins.
Cibelle gave her Mistress a look that promised a lot of fun, then left to get the required sewing kit.

Cinnamon stopped her however. "Wait, we have enough silver pieces now." It was an impressive pile of 150 small money bags.

The bunny placed the remaining coins back into the money chest. Then tried, and failed, to move the copper coin chest closer.

Zaria walked over and simply lifted the over 500 pounds heavy chest. She placed it next to the pile of coin bags. Then she moved the silver coin chest next to the gold coin chest.

Cinnamon pouted at the casual display of strength. The bunny could not even push the heavy coin filled chest, but her Mistress simply lifted it. It was moments like this that highlighted how abnormal their Mistress was.

She doubted life would get boring. She felt no jealousy either. Zaria was simply too far removed from normal for her to comprehend and to get jealous off.

She felt more of an amusement, sure things were going to get dangerous, after all if her Mistress will go out and claim all the beautiful women, then jealous men were going to follow. She would have to work hard to defend her spot in the harem. Well maybe not that hard, lean against the Mistress and accidently brush her with the ears. Cinnamon wondered what the orgies were going to be like.

Zaria was waiting for Cibelle to return when she saw something weird. Cinnamon was staring into space and blushing. It would have looked creepy since the bunny was starting to drool, but the ears were twitching, folding back, perking up, and it looked plain silly when the only thing moving on the open-mouthed drooling bunny were the ears.

Laying out the silk she went mentally over her current uniform. There were a few things she could improve, but she was satisfied with the result, she had to make allowances for the modest B-cup (EU standard) she had too. Even the thought of a constricting bra made her shudder, chest wraps were even worse. That would require some thought. Simply going without anything underneath was risky as well. Maybe she should bug the tailor girl about it?

For now, a thin camisole would have to suffice, she could make one, probably. After all a camisole was just a sexy transparent thin short top that was decorated and thin straps.

Zaria stopped there mentally. How did one make straps actually? Were camisole decorations like embroidery? If she only made a thin transparent one why even wear one?

It was clear. Underwear was clearly an issue, even the perfectly fit panties she had were annoying long term since they were tight, and none of her classes considered them acceptable. And now she had a similar issue with covering her top.

The solution was simple: go without for now, revisit the issue later with the tailor girl and the sexy underwear magazine.

Satisfied she put that issue off. Worst case she would memory wipe anyone who saw too much. It just needed the right spell prepared. That was when she remembered that she already had it. It was Spell Level 4 Bard spell. She really needed to make more use of her lower classes.

"Cinnamon, remind me to research underwear later with the tailors." Zaria ordered.

"Yes! Is that a long-term project?" The eager bunny finally snapped out of her daydreams.

"It should be." The currently tall albino responded.

There was a knock on the door, which then opened to reveal Cibelle returning with the large sewing kit. "I brought the sewing materials." She closed the door behind her. "Do you need anything else Mistress?"

"I don't think so." Zaria pondered. "I will try something."

She prepared the material and the silk. "This could go terribly wrong, but I am going to try to push myself to the limits with this."

The currently taller kitsune started.

And the three females in the room were forced to stare in fascination. Hands moved at an incredible speed; the 5 silk layers were being done simultaneously. Stitches appeared precisely despite the fact that several were being done at once.

Amidst this incredible view Elior knocked, then carefully entered, as she held the suspicion that she might not get an answer just to spite her. Her first reaction was not awe however. "Tall? Naked?" It was pure confusion. The way the almost bare kitsune was posing in front of a mirror made her turn red from embarrassment.

Zaria was checking the fit. The top was open, but it laid on her shoulders comfortably. Then she tied it close. It covered all it should, the extra layers she had added in a spur of the moment over her breasts prevented her nipples from showing through the fabric.

Satisfied with the fit, and annoyed for having used up almost all her white spider silk, she went to reinforce the seams.

The top got placed off to the side and Zaria went about turning the red silk into pants. Cuts appeared, folds were made, seams were reinforced, and stitches were placed. All too soon the red pants with the tail V were tested and found satisfactory except for a few details that were quickly corrected. Next was the belt. She made a flap at the back again to cover the v-cut for the tail.

Finally, it was time to check the full outfit.

Top, bottom and belt were fastened and checked for the correct fit.

It looked fine in Zaria's opinion. There was more she could do with other materials, but as a ceremonial silk shrine maiden outfit it was perfectly fine. She did a happy twirl and checked the back. The tail was covered at the base, not much risk of showing herself compared to the exhibitionist ninja kitty.

She nodded at herself satisfied and turned to her audience. "That was pretty much my limit."

"Not sure you can call this a limit." Elior mumbled.

"I wish to order a more erotic maid outfit." Cibelle raised her hand.

Cinnamon perked up. "We need matching maid outfits with chokers!"

"Perverts" no need to guess who said that.

"Not today, I am all out of white silk, I will need some black and white silk again before I can make something of the kind you two want." She then turned to look at Elior, shook her head and switched over the little one. "I don't feel like writing more letters today."

"Letters?"

"Seems like I had friends before. One has been crippeled, one has secrets, and the last one is a tomboy who wants to be a princess and that I seem to have indulged a lot."

"I am not sure what to say."

"Neither am I, but it sounds like my friends or people I seemed to like for some reason are interesting. So tomorrow I am going to deliver letters to set up meetings."

"Isn't that what mail is for?" Elior asked doubtfully.

"I am out and about a lot tomorrow anyway." Zaria countered. "I will deliver the letters, then I have a business meeting with a drow matriarch in the underdark. Afterwards pick up those that agree to meet the same day."

"Business with drow?" Elior was not happy.

Cinnamon however corrected. "Not tomorrow Mistress, the day after."

Zaria nodded. "More like a meeting to meet the rest of the powers there. Seems the city I was at is ruled by nine Matriarchs. After I dropped by the last time, it was decided to make a meeting to introduce me formally, especially since my coming had been prophesied by their Goddess Lyx'yxy. According to that I am 'The White One' and am supposed to be treated as an honoured guest. The message only took ages to reach someone in charge, too long."

"What?"

Zaria looked up from where she had been cleaning up after the sewing. She really needed more silk. She looked at the surprised group. "Did I forget to mention that?"

"Yes!" Elior complained. "Why would a Goddess that is not yours warn her people?" Then she realized why, Zaria as a small cute white albino girl in a city full of drow. Drow being drow, Zaria being Zaria. Suddenly a destroyed city, the very annoying inhabitants’ dead, the others turned into various races and genders. She could understand why their Goddess wanted to warn them about the white menace.

"You just thought something incredibly rude!" Zaria accused Elior.

"No! I just realized why she would want to warn them about your coming." Elior deflected.

Zaria pouted. Something that looked sexier on her adult body. "I am not that bad!"

"Mistress, you admitted yourself you had to eradicate a drow cleric." Cibelle threw in.

"Oh?" Elior was surprised it was only one.

Zaria sighed and leaned back. "Thief at the bazaar tried to steal from me."

That caused multiple winces

"I took offense and may have made sure that hand would never be able to steal without a Regeneration spell."

Now only Elior winced. "What did you do?"

"Shattered every bone in that hand."

Cinnamon turned pale. Cibelle nodded in approval, anyone trying to touch her Mistress without permission was causing a serious offense. Elior turned a slight green, she should not have asked.

"He went to whine to his cleric. She tried to have me enslaved for defending myself."

Everyone but the golem imagined the carnage from that.

"I disabled the guards painfully but not lethally, she took care of them herself, and several civilians nearby got rolled up in that Flame Strike too. I decided to remove her to keep the surroundings safe. That is where the loot came from actually. Then finally the message reached the matriarch, and she came."

Elior was torn between chiding Zaria for running around unsupervised, and praising her for ending an unscrupulous cleric. Chiding won however. "Please stop running around alone!"

"I am not taking anyone else into situations that might kill them. That includes you!" Zaria fired back. "I am going to take a famous high elven cleric into a drow city I have never been to. Sounds like an even worse recipe for disaster, since I'd have to protect you, and that would cause things to escalate even worse."

Elior felt oddly charmed by Zaria's claim of defending her, then quickly squashed the feeling. She was not going to stay around the white menace a moment longer then she had to. She really missed her normal regulated life. No suddenly stripping albino kitsunes. No illogical white menaces, and no random chaos. It sounded wonderful.

"Only one I could take with me is Cibelle, and even that is a no, until all of them know not to touch her."

Cibelle gave a pleased smile.

"You know I don't want all those incidents to happen, and last time you were there too!"

Elior had to admit the menace had a point there. She had seen how some adventurers called out Cibelle, and probably would have killed her. Or how the thieves had come to the shrine. "It is your own fault, you chaotic bundle of fluff."

"That is unfair, I never picked to have so much to do!"

Everyone gave her disbelieving looks.

"Things just happen, and sometimes something is too good an idea to skip."

"Like stealing my underwear?"

"I didn't steal your underwear, I just removed it and placed it in a safe place." Zaria defended herself. "If I had stolen them, I wouldn't have given them back. No idea what to do with someone else's underwear though."

Cinnamon however had an idea. "Sell them. I am sure the right pervert would pay a lot for the worn underwear of Elior the high elven cleric."

Zaria looked thoughtful. Cibelle was staring at a place that made Elior uncomfortable.

"While a good idea, I don't really want to have to find a pervert that is rich and into such things." Zaria declared.

Elior shuddered at the thought of one of those pervert nobles owning her underwear. It would have to be cleansed and purified, with holy fire, in a crusade to relieve the item from whoever had taken possession from it.

"No selling anyone’s underwear." Zaria gave Elior a calculating look. "No selling anyone either, even if a black leather collar would look good on Elior."

"Can you stop teasing me?"

"I could, but I don't want to." Zaria waved at Annabelle. "Come here, let's fix your dress, you said your chest is too tight?"

"Yes." The golem slowly walked over. Zaria helped her strip, then took to adjusting the dress for the bigger bust. She was rather exasperated about her perverted ancestor.

She did this adjustment casually, while the maids finished counting out the copper pieces.

------

Dinner was happily attended in adult form.

Something that caused a raised eyebrow from the father.

And a lot of awe from the maids.

She was really happy to be taller. It was much more comfortable compared to the small self. She was happily munching on her steak, she liked steaks so much more now. Foxes were omnivores, but they did like their meat a lot. She really had to find some tofu to check if thinly fried tofu had turned into a gift from heaven. It would take some experimentation; she had never cooked that before.

The, currently, woman liked the size. But it was taking a permanent mental strain to keep it up. She was unhappy about the effect a bit. It was supposed to be a physical change like the spell. But she figured her many races and unique body interfered. Would have been too easy otherwise.

She needed to sit down and try to figure out more about herself. The character sheet said a lot, but she was really in need of flavour text.

Speaking of flavour, she wanted to cook. A nice roast sounded good. Or make a nice apple pie. She needed unsupervised access to a kitchen. She looked to her right where the small golem was testing her way through a variety of one bite portions of various dishes with Cinnamon merrily explaining.

Surprisingly it seemed to like fish over meat, and salads over animal products. Not so surprisingly was fruit salad being preferred over the vegetable one. It seemed that even Annabelle was a normal girl in regard to her sweet tooth.

Elior decided the whole family was weird. A Duke that cares nothing that a pleasure golem was being tested for food preferences, or that his daughter now suddenly looked older than she was even before her death.

It was hard to admit for her, but she wanted to go home. Not because she was lonely, but because she was afraid for her sanity. She debated asking for a bottle of wine, but getting drunk in your room until you pass out was not something someone like her should do.

Elior finished her steak, meanwhile Zaria was working through her second steak.

The golem was sitting there and staring at Elior. The Duke finished and excused himself.

"What are you going to do tonight?" Elior asked.

"Test my adult body with Cibelle and Cinnamon." Zaria replied after she had finished chewing and swallowing. "I wonder if I can maintain my adult shape during our love plays. Do you want to join?"

Elior felt her face heat up. "No!"

She also heard the maids’ comments.

"I think she is in denial." "I think she is a bottom." "Think she will sneak in when everyone else is asleep?"

Elior wanted nothing more than to refute, or run and hide. If she tried to argue her case, the white menace would find some way to tease her. So, it was a tactical retreat. "Thank you for the dinner, I shall retire to my room." She needed to start another letter as well, how the menace now owned a sex golem in a little girl form and used it as a dress up doll.

------

The money having been grabbed, the secretary had wanted to send guards, to which the maids had protested, no male was going to be allowed to enter their Mistress's room. That meant that three female guards and a horde of maids had carried off the hill of coin bags, dismantled the fox den, and removed the meant to be sold magic items. Somewhere in that chaos Yuki returned to protect her pillow and blanket from being carried off.

That meant that it was time to test the adult body. Annabelle got delegated to the love seat, and told to figure out how she liked to sit or lie in it.

Being able to kiss Cibelle without the taller one having to bend down was a nice bonus, as well as feeling her now far larger compared to before breasts pressing against those of her drow lover. The size difference to Cinnamon had increased, but towering over her bunny made Zaria feel more dominant, something she also proved.

It was good to be tall. Something in her mind suddenly clicked. Like she now understood or accepted. She knew she would not lose control of her shape any more.

As she relaxed after wearing the two maids out, she draped herself over Cibelle's side, being taller increased the amount of skin contact too, something she really appreciated. The passed-out bunny was hugging her from the back, the small body feeling warm against her skin.

The adult body was better for love play, Zaria concluded.

Everything felt more intense, and she was more sensitive. She frowned. She had to check, but maybe there was a spell to try to give Cinnamon a larger size? Or make her medium sized instead of small? She knew there was one for animals, there was also one for monsters, but she was not sure if either would work on her bunny. That required remembering the spell first.

But that was for tomorrow.

Zaria closed her eyes and decided not to worry about anything for today, but to simply enjoy the feel of the two beauties against her skin.

--- Outtake - How Annabelle was actually activated ---

(Read at your own Risk)

Discord Quotes to the Chapter:

Lazy Writer: *facepalm* Zaria just sicked a maid onto secretary to educate her in gossip
Loki: This makes sense
Notsosneekyninja22: sounds like the secretary might not remain serious for too long if similar things keep happening

Lazy Writer: Epic, but looses against lvl 1 & 2 maids.
Loki: Maids are a special existence
Lazy Writer: so it seems

Loki: "I love Teleportation" That's fantastic
Lazy Writer: and so true
Lazy Writer: even with "limited" range for normal people, 100 miles/CL, the way to travel, if I could I'd use it in rl a lot
Lazy Writer: travel time to work? 6 seconds
Lazy Writer: while wandering around exploring is fun, sitting in a carriage for hours or days? or on a ship?
Loki: Need some entertainment
Lazy Writer: *imagines Zaria bored on a small ship*
Lazy Writer: ...
Lazy Writer: I think the captain will quit
Lazy Writer: as will the sailors

Loki: "I was sitting" Not the point Zaria
Lazy Writer: but she was!
Loki: Still not the point

Notes:
That kind of became much more than expected. Like Fel'ctas can't keep her skirt down, Zaria can't have a single short relaxing day.
Her personal dress up doll has been introduced. Why I added her? I blame the many doll horror movies I have watched. There is just something creepy about entering a room and then finding yourself stared at by lifeless eyes. Her role is basically to be there and unnerve others.

Poll: Does Zaria deserve a real, lazy, action less, no finding new things, no work, and so on, day off?
1: Yes, lock her in her room doing nothing.
2: Yes, she deserves it, but as a bundle of too random and easily distracted chaos, it is impossible.
3: No, she is too random and will always find something that needs doing.
4: No, she is not allowed to take it easy! That would be boring.
5: Actually, all she needs to do is find out how to be in ten places at once, not a D&D 3.5 Spell yet? She needs to create it then.
6: Whatever, keep the chapters coming!

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