Chapter 44: Isekai Life & Lewd Mark

Voss was glad to be back. He joined us leaving the audience hall, and we were glad to have him back. The Theodore Esche Royal Harem was a pretty exclusive club, and I got the sense that as much as Enna found all the debauchery amusing to watch from the outside, it would eventually drive a wedge between her and the rest of us if she was the only one left out. Voss being in the mix made us a team which happened to include the harem, rather than the harem plus Enna.

Bekker not counting in this calculus as he was more or less mine and Katriana’s personal servant, of course. I didn’t forget him, he’s just in a different situation.

Enna and Katriana had to support Voss coming back to our little courtyard, though. He got too tired to walking unassisted about two thirds of the way, and made jokes about how this was payback for Enna standing on his shoulders in the catacombs that one time. You wouldn’t have known he was weak by the time dinner got served, though. We were served two roast chickens, steamed vegetables and fresh bread, and Voss ate most of a roast chicken just on his own.

It turns out he didn’t remember much of the actual dying. “One moment, I was flying through the air,” in his own words, “Then the next I woke up in the temple of the All-Father. Nothing in between that I can recall.” The priests and priestesses were kind enough in nursing him back to health, although he was able to confirm that nobody who had died by fire was able to be resurrected, including the Lord Paramount’s family. I guess they weren’t that close, if Hawkins didn’t seem particularly troubled, but I suppose that Hawkins might have been hiding his emotional pain. I did know for sure that Sir Sylvan should thank his lucky stars that it was the impact that killed him and not the flamestrike.

Voss was also the first one to get his reward. Later that night, after he had gone to sleep, a servant came and dropped off a large shield, tinted dark green with a maroon hawk, wings outspread, emblazoned across it. Calliope did her thing, confirming that the shield was magical. Ashryn had a look, and said, “I don’t recognize that combination and symbology. I think it was probably the personal heraldry of some adventurer, but whoever it was they’re long forgotten.”

I guess heraldry is useful when it comes to deciphering symbolism and omens.

That night, I asked Katriana to join me in bed, and we enjoyed a long, slow session of lovemaking together. Giving her the gift of her choker didn’t go as planned, though. I had saved the present for after, when we were lying in bed cuddling in the afterglow of our sex.

Her collar was inlaid with a simple geometric pattern on the black satin, and set in the centre with a green peridot, to match her eyes like the others. But when Katriana saw it, as I dangled it over her chest, she sighed. “I was hoping you didn’t have one for me.”

I blinked, shocked. “Uh ... sorry? You don’t want to same kind of gift I gave Ashryn and Calliope?”

She rolled onto her side and looked me in the eyes. “Think about it, Theodore. You’ve been introducing me as your sister. We’ve agreed that it’s best to hide the fact that you took your sister as a lover, and eventually a wife. You’ve also given Calliope and Ashryn these collars, implying your ownership of them, and if I happen to wear a matching one...”

“ ... It implies that we have a sexual relationship, or at least I have a very un-brotherly ownership of you.” I nodded glumly, “Yes, I understand.”

She took the choker from me, sat up in bed, and used the room’s small wall mirror to put it on. She looked at herself wearing the choker admiringly. “It’s really too bad, because my prince has excellent taste.”

I allowed myself a smirk. “In women or in jewellery?”

“Yes,” was her only answer as she lifted her thigh to straddle me, starting up a second session.

The night started a pattern. Katriana chose to take control of my sex life, to a degree, and the following night sent Calliope to spend the night with me. I didn’t really mind, of course- I had three beautiful women who loved me, and if Katriana wanted to take responsibility of choice from me, well, that kept me from showing to much favour or fomenting jealousy. And so, from there it continued for awhile in that Ashryn-Katriana-Calliope order.

It wasn’t always sex, either. Ashryn was insatiable- she was fine taking the “night off” if we were up too late or I was tired, but every night she was with me she wanted to have sex. Katriana was nearly as bad, but some night preferred to just lie in bed, dreaming together of our future together and discussing our plans of where to go next. Calliope liked having sex, sure, but she also liked discussion, talking about magic or catching up on what had happened to either of us since I left the Academy. She was interested in the history of our house, and actually had a suggestion regarding the choker situation.