Chapter 84: Book 2 chapter 42

You can’t keep avoiding her forever, Hecatolite. Amethyst sighed as Hecatolite ate their latest hunt, Amethyst long since losing her aversion to their shared diet as her sister had “snacked” on most of the local wildlife. 

I don’t know what you’re talking about. Hecatolite replied innocently as bit into the large wolf-like creature, there sure are a lot of these “mana beast” lately…

Stop trying to deflect Hecatolite, Saffron is starting to think she did something to upset you. it’s been three weeks you know. 

Hecatolite flinched at the mention of the succubus, the action causing the three around the small campfire to grow nervous as they scanned the surrounding area.

“Did you… feel something?” Fiori asked as she did a quick perimeter check.

Hecatolite simply shook her head, you have room to talk. When are we going to talk about what happened with Applesnack? Hecatolite shifted her gaze to the feline woman standing before her, purposefully letting her eyes linger on the small tail that poked out over her tight leather pants. Or maybe you want to talk about a different snack?

When I am ready, Amethyst replied bluntly as she flooded her sister with her feeling of annoyance as she tried, without success, to avert their eyes. We can talk about all that and more later, Saffron however, is here and now. You know we only have two more weeks tops until we leave for the capital, once we do, who knows how long until we see her again.

Hecatolite, much to Amethyst's surprise, gave into her sister’s emotions and looked back to her half-eaten wolf. I know… it's just… what do I say, “oh I just realized I never asked what you wanted, do you want to go home?” and then what if she does?... can… can you…

No Hecatolite, I can’t do it for you, besides if you ask her what she wants I have a creeping suspicion I know what she will ask for. For the first time Amethyst was on the offensive in teasing as she sent Hecatolite a particularly scandalous mental image of Saffron lying face down on bed.

“That’s it, we’re going back for the day.” Ethan choked as their small camp was instantly filled with a lustful haze. 

“But I’m not done hunting?” Hecatolite quickly tried to snuff the heat in her abdomen. Having not expected the sudden stimulation, she was subjected to the full brunt of Amethyst’s “trick”, the image of the panting succubus dragged Hecatolite’s divine aura out in full force

“I doubt you’re going to find anything out here to help with that,” Ethan replied, kicking dirt onto the fire she had been using to keep her food warm. One would think she was cooking it, they would be wrong, Hecatolite simply did not like the taste of cold blood, so the simple answer was to throw an entire corpse onto the fire while she waited for the soul to leave the body, once that happened however… Mira was concerned she would burn herself, several times reminding Hecatolite to “remove it from the fire before eating it.”

Amethyst laughed as Hecatolite was begrudgingly forced to pack away the rest of her food and follow the party. After several incidents, their parents… and the guard… and adventures guild… and the spiritual guild… everyone really, had made Hecatolite swear to stick with her party when outside of the city, even if she was unhappy with what they decided, she needed to act as part of the group and not wander around alone in the woods.

I hope you're happy. Hecatolite hissed as she continued to chew on the front leg of a wolf, following behind Mira at the back of the small group. That was dirty.

Oh, it's dirty when I do it but when you do it it's fine?

Exactly! Where did you even get that memory anyway huh? Maybe you and Saffron should have a talk.

Hecatolite you’re the one who keeps throwing that memory around you know. I’m pretty sure you showed it to everyone… 

Really? I forgot I can do that… that’s it, I’ll just send her a premonition of…

Just go talk to her! Amethyst yelled, causing Hecatolite to bite through the bone she was gnawing on with a sickening crunch.

Mira glanced back to see Hecatolite grumbling as she pulled another slab of meat from the bag on her hip. “Hecatolite you shouldn’t eat and walk at the same time.” 

Hecatolite rolled her eyes shoving the food back into her bag, “well I was eating by a nice cozy fire, but someone insisted on…” Hecatolite paused as she looked over her group, “Hey, Fiori.”

Don’t you dare. Amethyst growled in her sister's mind, as the feline woman turned back to them. 

“So, you know how Amethyst kind of appleslapped her boyfriend away?”

“Yea… what about it?” Fiori asked her ears shooting up curiously, even Hecatolite thought the action was cute as the woman tilted her head.

Oh, dare I do. “Well Amethyst is…” 

That’s it! Amethyst yelled as she tried to wrestle control of the body away from Hecatolite. 

“She…” oh wow…. Hecatolite strained as her muscles spasmed. “Shy… want to know…. Date?” 

The trio watched as the black lines on Hecatolite’s neck and face danced, her whole body seeming to jerk as she seemed to struggle to talk. 

The two seemed to be at a stalemate, neither one able to assert full control over the body as they stood there with the face contorted, their body moving in spasms as the aether lines of Hecatolite seemed to dance around the faint blessing marks of Amethyst. 

What happened next was… horrifying to the three as both Amethyst and Hecatolite tried to speak, their head snapping back and forth as two similar, but different voices came from their mouth.

“Amethyst…” 

“Just” 

“really…” 

“talk to” 

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“likes…” 

“her.” 

“Your tail.” Done now, you can walk home, right? With that Hecatolite vanished into the void letting Amethyst fall to the ground panting, her head throbbing as she managed to just catch herself.

“Really!” Amethyst yelled, smearing a bloody hand across her face as she stood up. “It’s like arguing with a chi…” She stopped when she looked up to her three companions, all of which with varying expressions at the display. Her eyes locked with Fiori who stood wide eyed as for the first time in her life, Amethyst was happy to have her face coated in blood to cover the burning, she now felt in her cheeks. “Can… can we just ignore that… forever maybe?”

To say the silence was awkward would have been a gross understatement as they all stood looking at Amethyst who sheepishly looked back to Fiori who, after a moment, pieced together the strange occurrence. The faintest hint of a blush peeking through her fur as the puzzle in her mind finished.

Ethan went to speak but was quickly silenced by Mira grabbing his arm, “I… I think we will go ahead a bit.” Mira exclaimed, pulling him into the trees.

“I… I didn’t know you were… into…” Fiori scratched her cheek awkwardly. 

“No, I mean yes, maybe… but I…” Amethyst stammered before slumping her shoulders with a long sigh. “I don’t know. Kind of hard to know when you have Hecatolite in your head all the time.” She said slowly pulling the bands from her arms. “It’s just… a lot. I just kind of…. You know, left someone, and there’s a lot going on. we got the whole “coronation” party thing, then the trip to Ecrein, and the war in the north and…” 

Amethyst stopped when she looked to Fiori who couldn’t help but smile at her embarrassed rambling. “So… Tails. That’s what does it for a saint huh?” Fiori teased, more to cover her own embarrassment than anything.  

“No, it’s not like that. I mean it's not just tails…” Amethyst tried to defend herself, afraid Fiori would think it was a weird kink. There was no end of stories about nobility with… “exotic” taste, even her own family had rumors; not that anyone could refute them given Taaffeite’s relationship with the queen, but Amethyst would rather not have such a stigma around her.

Fiori giggled as she shook her head, “I was only teasing.” She said with a smile as she watched Amethyst somehow blush right though her blood-soaked face. “I know you have a lot going on, so let’s just say… I wouldn’t be completely opposed to the idea and leave it at that for now.” a new expression replaced the playful smile on Fiori’s face… for the first-time Amethyst would have sworn she looked… uncertain. Fiori was no stranger to relationships with the same sex, but Amethyst was… diffrent. She was not only a saint but a high ranking noble, Fiori was just a nobody adventurer from the wild-lands. And given Amethyst's personality Firoi doubted she was looking for a simple fling, the idea made Fiori…. nervous. “We are going to be traveling together and all so…”

“Yea, we can take it from there. See how it all plays out.” Amethyst momentarily mistook the uncertainty in Fiori’s face as rejection. That misunderstanding was quickly corrected when Fiori spun on her heels revealing a slightly wagging small tail, the motion drawing Amethyst eyes down to her toned butt.

“You know,” Fiori looked over her shoulder just as Amethyst snapped her head up. “I don’t mind if you look.” She said with a wink before pressing forward into the forest.

Did… did that… damn it Hecatolite. fine, since you were so kind as to “help” me, I think I’ll help you. Amethyst shook her head as she followed Fiori, who now seemed to sway her hips whenever Amethyst was behind her. it wasn’t lost on her that every time her eyes landed on Fiori after that, her tail seemed to lift as if reacting to her gaze.

 

Hecatolite couldn’t help but laugh to herself as she sat in the void, deciding to leave Amethyst the joy of walking home in peace without her. She quickly set out to do… nothing. 

Amethyst always assumes Hecatolite is “up” to something in the void space but in honesty, Hecatolite found the space to be rather… boring. If her sister was in the body, she was alone, left with nothing but time and her thoughts, often spending the time in the void simply firing IRIS at wandering whites or chasing Babylon around. All her enchanting gear was in the physical world meaning even if she thought of another amazing item to make, she would be stuck drafting the item over and over until she got bored of it, making it a waste of time for her to bother with “planning” it out anyway.

She knew Amethyst uses the time to research with Babylon but even that gets dull fast, that and the dumb box can’t be trusted. Just the other day it insisted she couldn’t make a cape that always billowed in the wind regardless of if there was wind or not! Or did it say she shouldn’t? Well regardless, the cape came out just fine! Sure, it almost strangled her before it “billowed” away but it still worked… I wonder where it landed… 

Hecatolite was unaware of how much time passed as she lay on the ground of the void looking up at the sky. Her mind wandered as she counted the clouds that hung overhead in the clear night sky of the void. That was until the thunderclap of Babylon startled her, stopping just in time before she destroyed the terminal.

“Damn it Inutil, what did I tell you about that!” She growled as she harmlessly tapped a claw on the terminal with a large 99 carved into it.

Overseer was… uncertain about Hecatolite’s insistence the 100th terminal should be special, apparently, with a great amount of personal restraint, wanting to save it for just the right occasion. On one hand, it was delighted she was no longer attacking it on sight, on the other, what constituted a “special” occasion for Hecatolite was a mystery it did not want to find out. It however, after brief consideration, did not inform her she was closer to a thousand destroyed terminals than one hundred. Even if it ignored the terminals she destroyed while healing Saffron, she technically had 103 destroyed terminals under her belt given the whites had broken 3 while they were active in the soul space.  

“Sorry, Hecatolite,” it flashed an annoyed yellow as it floated away from her, “you have a message from Amethyst Lapidary, the All-Faiths saintess.”

“I thought I told you to drop all that title stuff.” She rolled her eyes as she fell back into the grass, “well what does it say?”

“Hecatolite, get out here and wash this mess off of us. I walked us home. The least you can do is bathe.” The terminal flashed as it spoke in Amethyst's voice. 

Hecatolite scratched the side of her head before sighing, “I guess that’s fair. I mean I did cause it, besides, can’t expect her to flirt with the kitty with blood on her face… or maybe she’s into that…” Hecatolite paused, realizing that aside from knowing Fiori was a “sneaky cat”, she actually had not paid much attention to the woman. “I should keep an eye on that cat.” She narrowed her eyes looking towards the possession circle, “don’t want her doing anything weird to little sparkle.”

Hecatolite took control of the body to find her sister had in fact walked them home, even brought her to the bathroom with a waiting bath. The bands on their arms flashing to life as they started the strenuous job of stifling her aether, thankfully Amethyst put them on before Hecatolite took control or she would have woken the entire house when entering the body. 

She had learned to “suppress” herself somewhat, now able to hold her aura at bay for a short time by circulating the aether within herself but it required her to focus on it more than the average person leading to her still using the bands whenever possible, even more so whenever she first takes over as it takes her a moment to actively suppress herself.

Hecatolite nodded as she looked into the water, “oh, looks nice.” She hummed as she cautiously put her hand into the water.

What are you doing? Amethyst asked as Hecatolite splashed a bit of the water with her hand. At least take our armor off before getting in.

“I will,” Hecatolite said, seemingly content with the water as she stood nodding to herself. 

“Mistress.” A voice behind her caused her to freeze, “lady Amethyst told me that you had something you wished to discuss.”

You… I… Hecatolite stammered in her mind as she turned to see Saffron, in full human maid disguise, standing patiently at the door, her arms crossed under her chest as she looked to Hecatolite with an eyebrow raised.

It’s only fair. Have fun. Amethyst giggled as Hecatolite felt Amethyst's presence inside her mind weaken.

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