Chapter 18

I awoke slowly, and it took me a few moments to get my bearings. I could tell that I was in our room once again, though I was currently pinned with two beautiful women lying on my arms, cuddled into me. I wanted to see what time it was but couldn’t reach my bracer to check. To make matters worse, I could feel the pressure of my bladder telling me that I needed to go to the bathroom. Reluctant to wake them, I tried to untangle myself as slowly and as carefully as I could. With some careful maneuvering, I was successful in freeing myself and getting out of the bed without waking either one of them. With the loss of my body heat, they sought out one another and settled into a comfortable embrace.

I went to the bathroom near our room and relieved myself. My thoughts drifted to the revelation of Freyja’s pregnancy and how my ladies might respond to the news. Amenthia had had an issue of jealousy when she had learned of me copulating with the goddess. I was a little afraid of how she would react to this news. I knew that keeping it from her in hopes of saving myself the fallout now would only make it a hundred times worse when they found out by other means. Resigned to my fate, I returned to our room to find them both still sleeping. However, Kat’ilth’ana was very much awake and in the middle of getting dressed.

I must have fallen asleep prior to her getting ready for bed, because she had still been in her regular clothes when I last saw her. I caught her in the middle of dressing, as she finished pulling up her pants. Her torso, however, was completely bare, and I could see the movement of her breasts as she dressed. Not wanting to seem a pervert, though I was feeling like one at the moment, I cleared my throat to let her know I had returned.

She glanced over her shoulder and said, “Good morning, Pathios. I wasn’t sure if you were getting food or in the bathroom, so I figured now would be the time to dress.” She turned to face me with her shirt in her hand and continued, “I didn’t expect you back so soon, but I am almost done.”

I watched in silent awe as her bosom moved and swayed with her movements as she put on her shirt. Her pale green skin made the darker green areolae all the more prominent and I couldn’t seem to make myself look away. The spell was broken as the shirt obscured them from view, but when I looked back at Katie’s face, I could swear there was the hint of a smirk on her lips. I turned my focus to the two lovely ladies underneath the blanket on our bed and decided to cause a little mischief of my own. I grabbed the edge of the blanket and yanked it off the bed in one deft movement. They groaned at the loss of warmth the blanket brought them. I then quickly gave each a swat on the ass, causing them to jerk awake and in Amenthia’s case moan.

“Time to get up, ladies,” I announced, causing both to groan again. “We have a busy day ahead of us and something very important to discuss.”

That got the attention of both of them, and they quickly sat up. I could see curiosity and a bit of apprehension on their faces. I was worried about how this would turn out, but it needed to be done.

“Last night I was sent to a place in the Capitol,” I said softly, finding it hard to make eye contact. “I had been brought once again to Freyja’s personal quarters. I found her standing on a balcony overlooking the city.” I took a deep breath and looked directly at Amenthia, “it was then she told me that she was with child and confirmed that it was from our recent activities.”

I watched as a bunch of emotions flashed across Amenthia’s face. I couldn’t gauge them all, but the end result told me she was both unhappy and conflicted. I looked over at Entivala and was not sure what I saw there. Mostly it seemed to be concern for the friend and lover beside her. I sighed, unsure of what would happen, “Since you need time to process this, and to get dressed, I am going to go downstairs and get some food for us. Katie, if you would come with me to help, I would appreciate it.”

Katie simply nodded and we left the uncomfortably silent room to head downstairs. My stomach felt in knots as I wondered about whether I had done the right thing or not by telling them now. So much had happened to us recently, and we were still working through it. I sighed and tried to put it out of my mind.

I quickly gathered food for me and Amenthia, while Katie collected food for herself and Entivala. While we were loading up plates, I was surprised at Katie stopping to talk to me.

“I just want to let you know you did do the right thing,” she said softly, just loud enough for me to hear her. “You could have hidden the truth from them and caused more harm to your relationship than telling them now did. They will be upset and a little hurt, but they will give you the benefit of the doubt. I do think Amenthia will have some choice words for you though, but Enti seemed to be generally okay with it. I just figured you should know, so that you aren’t second guessing your decision.”

I thanked her and we collected the food before heading to the room. When we returned, Amenthia and Entivala were sitting at the table near our bed. We put the plates of food on the table and Katie excused herself to go get cups and a pitcher for drinks. Alone in the room with them, I felt the awkward tension between us. The silence of the room only served to heighten my anxiety over the situation and I wondered when one of them would speak.

Amenthia broke the silence with, “I can’t seem to understand this, Pathios. Why did you sleep with her? Just because she asked. Are you going to sleep with just anyone who asks you? Because I don’t want to have any more surprises like this one.”

“The reason I accepted and did as she asked was simple,” I responded dejectedly, as I sat on the edge of our bed. “If it weren’t for her, and the offer she made, I wouldn’t be here. I would have been sent to limbo, unable to move on. She is the reason I came to this amazing world. She is the reason I have been able to have the victories and defeats that have highlighted my time here. If it weren’t for Freyja, I would never have met you or Entivala. Cassandra and Brot’k would still be stuck hiding their craft, unhappy with their life. Enti may have ended up with Torvius and who knows where you would be.

“I owe my current life and all the people in it to her and the choice she allowed me to make. I was indebted to her and wondered what I could ever do to repay her. When she asked me to lie with her, I didn’t hesitate because I saw it as a way to fulfill my debt to her. I never actually expected to get her pregnant, since she was a goddess, so last night came to a complete surprise. I never did any of this to hurt either of you and I am sorry if you feel that my actions did.”

Amenthia looked down at her hands, as a blank stare appeared on her face. She remained that way for a few moments and I felt uneasy. I had never before seen such a numb expression on her face, and it seemed so alien compared to how she normally was. The seconds ticked by and I felt the unease growing inside of me. Entivala reached over and placed her hand on top of Amenthia’s. She seemed to snap out of wherever her mind had wandered and looked up at Enti. A moment later, her eyes moved to mine and I saw her features soften a bit.

“I think I understand now,” she answered in a somewhat cryptic fashion. “Sorry if I worried you, but I was just talking to Freyja. We were taught how to do this if we ever needed to commune with our trainers when they weren’t with us. She explained some things to me, and I better understand the situation. ‘Girls talk’, I’m afraid, so you won’t be learning about our conversation. I will say you got glowing marks in the love making department, so I am proud of you.”

I felt my unease decrease and asked, “So you aren’t mad at me anymore or just not as angry as you were?”

“Oh I am still mad,” she replied with a grin that made me uneasy again. “I should have been the one to have your first child. Entivala and I discussed it and agreed to it a while back. Still, I understand why you did it and also why she asked you. So I am not as angry. However, if you manage to get another person pregnant before either of us, I will beat the shit out of you, and it could mean the end of our relationship. I am trusting you to keep your word. Should you break that promise, then I could no longer be with you. Trust is everything to me and is the foundation of this relationship. I trust you with my life and my heart, so make sure not to take that for granted.”

I closed the distance between us and took her hands in mine as I knelt before her.

“I will never willfully to anything to hurt you or Entivala,” I said, kissing her hands. “I only ask that you let me explain a situation to ensure there is no miscommunication or misinterpretation of the events. I have been honest and forthcoming about both interactions with Freyja and with any strange dream that has involved me interacting with someone. So, all I ask is please just give me the benefit of the doubt.”

Both Amenthia and Entivala nodded in agreement. I stood up and both grabbed me in a fierce hug. At that moment, Katie entered the room and brought the cups and pitcher to the table. With the tension gone, we were able to enjoy our meal and discuss the plans of the day. Training was going to be paramount to our progress and we figured we could check in at the shop to see how things were progressing with our equipment. When Brot’k has a project that piques his interest, he will immerse himself in it and even forgo sleep. When we started talking about training, I realized that I had had the chance to mention it to Tyr yesterday and forgot to.

When we concluded our meal, I called a raven and wrote a note to Tyr. I mentioned the idea of a different type of training room and that when he had a moment, he could visit for us to talk about it. Happy that I sent that out, I helped collect our dishes and we went downstairs to return them. We thanked the cook for the food and said hello to some of the people as we passed. I was tempted to go to the shop now, but I would rather give Brot’k time to get more done before bothering him. I was going to go right there, but my ladies suggested we return to the room first. When we arrived, I was surprised to find our dressers were a bit bigger and another had been added.

Amenthia and Entivala pulled out industrial sports bras and yoga pants from the dressers causing my eyes to bug out in surprise. Without any hint of shame, they stripped completely until they were deliciously naked from head to toe and put on the pants and sports bras. I could tell those were meant a bit more for distraction than completely for function and I had a feeling Freyja was behind this. Once they were dressed, they showed Katie where hers were and she decided to follow suit. Given the displays I was witnessing, I began to find it getting tighter in my pants. Amenthia then ran over to what would be my dresser and removed an exercise tee shirt and what seemed to resemble bicycle shorts.

I could tell, once I put them on, that they served the purpose of flexibility without any of my bits hanging out but did little to hide said bits. I put on my shirt but wondered what I would do for my feet. It seemed foolish to wear my boots with this, but barefoot wouldn’t work either. Next, Amenthia pulled out something that reminded me of a moccasin crossed with those shoes that swimmers would wear to protect their feet. There were enough for all four of us and felt rather comfortable when I put mine on. Given that everyone in the room had seen me in a state of undress, I had no qualms about removing my clothes in front of them. While the clothing would seem slightly different, I had a feeling we would start seeing some of it sold soon enough. The shoes looked enough like those people normally wore, they probably wouldn’t think anything of it.

Now that we were dressed for it, we made our way to the training area and spent the next four hours working our asses off. I introduced Katie to the staff forms we went through, partially to make her feel a part of the group, and also because I was already having ideas to increase her deadliness. Once that was done, the next two hours were spent testing them one on one, followed by fighting against a group. We each took turns trying to fend the others off, trying to develop our ability to fend off multiple attackers. The last hour, I had us go down to the outside grounds to try their crowd control tactics. I had Amenthia target each of the archery mannequins, then had Enti erect a wall with small holes for her to fire from.

Katie and I had a bucket of pebbles that we would try to lob through the openings to test their reactions as well as the effectiveness of the wall. At the start, the opening was around eighteen inches wide and around ten inches tall. By the end of the hour, it was ten inches wide and four inches tall. Enti also spaced them out so that Amenthia could fire from one then move to the next. It would increase the difficulty of landing a counter blow against her. I also had Enti try to fire projectiles through the openings and over the wall to see what could be done. The plan was to get her to use her imagination in how she formed and used her attacks. Since she could change the shape of the projectile, it gave her various options on how to use it.

With our training concluded, we went back to our rooms and changed out of our workout clothes. Amenthia surprised me again by handing out robes for us to wear to the showers. Since I had my robe, I was tempted to just wear it there and back, but I had the feeling the thief might take it, forcing me to return to my room naked. I grabbed fresh undergarments and waited as Amenthia and Entivala explained the new undergarments that were at Katie’s disposal. A few minutes later, I was under the refreshing waters of the shower and basking in the delicious warmth it was filling my muscles with. When I was done, I found my robe and other clothes were still there. I dressed quickly and returned to our room to find Tyr waiting for me.