Chapter 7

“What did you do to her!?” Elly bellowed.

Nora was pinned in the air against a wall in the living room trying, unsuccessfully, to move the powerful arm choking her. The lunch she had been carrying had been discarded on the floor.

“Let her go!” Roesia screamed as she almost hung from the muscular arm that wouldn’t budge.

Yvain quickly set the plates he was holding aside on the table and was about to stop his master, but Nelimir was quicker to react.

The Draconian’s Tavern leader tackled Elly to the ground, Roesia yelped as she was flung off by the force, and Nora dropped.

Yvain rushed next to her as the goddess coughed and tried to breath normally again. He himself tried to remain calm. The last thing he expected was to come into the living room and find Nora being choked by Elly. They didn’t get along, but he didn’t think it’d be to such an extent.

“Enough!“ Nelimir yelled as Elly tried to push him aside and jump back on Nora, rage rolling through her eyes.

“How can you defend her even after this!? Do you not see Roesia!? How is she supposed to live in Emryon now!? How is she supposed to face her family!?” Elly spat.

Nelimir still held her in place, but in his eyes Elly’s questions were reflected. He looked back to Nora and Yvain before looking at Elly again, “That’s why we’re going to have a meeting after lunch. Roesia did this to herself, not Nora. What we need to find out is what our next move will be.”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you!” Roesia screamed to Elly, sniffing growing tears away.

His master didn’t lose her anger, but she did falter at the sorceress’s words.

She’s raising good questions though, Yvain thought. Regardless of the consequences he would stand besides Nora and his guild, but how were they going to handle the situation? The most logical step would be to just keep both women inside the carriage at all times while they went out to look for information. Though Roesia was supposed to be helping Nora regain her human form. As much as it bothered him, if she managed to change herself like this, maybe she would be able to safely change his girlfriend.

“Is lunch ready!?” Selt popped out of his room almost instantly. The kid looked around the room before laying eyes on Roesia.

“You poor fool,” he said with a chuckle as he walked out. “They’ll skin you alive.”

“Shut up,” the sorceress said as she rubbed her eyes with her robes.

“No one is getting skinned or choked or shunned from their family while I’m around, do you all understand?” Nelimir said as he stood and offered Elly his hand.

The muscular woman debated for a moment whether to take it or use the opportunity to attack Nora again, but Yvain looked back at her with a promise that he wouldn’t allow it.

“You’re lucky I just went through pretty rough training,” she told Nelimir as she grabbed his hand.

“I can imagine, you both look like you went through a life or death battle,” he said with a smile. “Come help me clean up the mess you made.”

“That’s what you get,” Selt said while laughing.

Elly just rolled her eyes and went with Nelimir to pick up the food and plates that had fallen on the floor.

“Are you okay?” Yvain whispered to Nora.

The goddess nodded while rubbing her neck; she was glaring at Elly, holding back her own raging words.

The current situation came to be only because she was so weakened by yesterday’s exertion, he was sure she understood that. But he also couldn’t imagine that being so easily choked stung any less.

“Please go easy on her. Roesia is basically like a sister,” Yvain said while caressing his lovers head. He didn’t know if it was said touch, or his words, but Nora’s expression quickly relaxed as she pushed herself into his arms.

“You’ll have to make me forget about this transgression,” she said.

“It’ll be my pleasure,” Yvain said and took the chance that no one was looking to pinch one of Nora’s nipples, making her stiffen against him and swallow a moan before relaxing again.

“This is all my fault, I’m sorry,” suddenly a tearful Roesia was kneeling right next to them. Her turbulent, warm breath, as she attempted to calm herself down, crashed against Yvain’s self-control.

He had managed to somewhat ignore the full force of her presence when he and Nora went to prepare lunch. Even when he entered the living room and the whole debacle began. But now that his lover was okay, and everyone had calmed down, the sorceress’s allure returned.

He stared at her as Nora smiled and put a hand on the woman’s shoulder, “Think nothing of it.”

Roesia’s sniffs became a bit deeper as she reached the edge of bursting out in tears. She did her utmost to keep it together while Nora’s hand and smile reassured her that everything was alright.

“What are you looking at?” Roesia said as she rubbed her eyes for the umpteen time.

Yvain almost looked away in guilt, but he held the sorceress’s eyes, “It’s jarring to see you like this.” It was more than jarring. It felt like having another Nora in front of him. At least where his dick was concerned. Roesia wasn’t Nora though. And somehow who she was mattered to Yvain like never before. As if he had always seen her, but now every inch of her being came into focus. How could he have ever questioned her place in the guild?

“Yeah well, get used to it because I’m not changing back,” Roesia said stubbornly, she then looked to Nora. “We didn’t get the chance, but thanks to this breakthrough I might have also found a way to give you back your human form.”

Nora smiled excitedly, “Should we try it out then?”

“You guys should actually go do that now,” Nelimir cut in while holding one of the dirty plates and its contents. Elly was carrying the other.

“Elly and I will go redo the two lost lunches,” he said.

Selt had already grabbed one of the plates that Yvain set down and was stuffing his face.

“Come on, let’s go!” Roesia said as she stood and pulled on Nora’s arm.

Nora laughed and followed the sorceress as Yvain anxiously trailed behind them.

On one hand he was worried at what was about to happen. It seemed that Roesia really managed to perfect her concoction, but could she make Nora look like a human again? On the other, he kept looking at both women’s behinds. Did Roesia always have such a large ass? It wasn’t as big as Nora’s, but it definitely betrayed the rest of her small body. His cock was itching to be buried in it along with the bigger one.

“Will your new form even be permanent?” Nora asked. Everyone had arrived at Roesia’s hidden room.

“Only time will tell, but this feels much different than my past impromptu transformations,” the sorceress said as she moved and flexed her arms.

“How do you feel?” Yvain asked.

Roesia looked back at him with a grin, “Lighter.”

Nora smiled at the excited woman, “You weren’t wrong to think that other races had higher physical strength. You shouldn’t be as strong as Yvain, Elly, Nelimir, or me, but you should definitely be close to the pinnacle of a normal male human.”

The sorceress eyes opened wide, “Really?”

Nora nodded, and Roesia looked at her hands.

“That can’t be right,” Yvain said. “A simple potion can’t give you that type of boost.” He wouldn’t be surprised if it could thanks to the sorceress. But an ingrained idea of hard work, something he went through for years, was buried inside his subconscious. Could she gain strength that easily?

“It’s true that it isn’t that simple,” Nora said and turned to Roesia. “Should we tell him?”

“Tell me what?” Yvain asked.

The sorceress’s head snapped up. She looked hard at Nora, as if she wanted to protest something, but she then looked to Yvain.

“I’m ... an actual dragon now. I didn’t just change how I look,” she said.

Oh stars, Yvain thought. Was this why Elly was so riled up? It wouldn’t make sense; how could his master have known? He wasn’t angry like her at least. Yet, while he was no expert in anything related to science or magic, the sorceress’s words brought about one question.

“It’s permanent, isn’t it?” He might not have an understanding of the how, but he understood the who. Roesia didn’t get as excited as she had become over things she wasn’t sure of. And while he didn’t know why she had a fixation over transforming into different animals, he knew that her end goal was to become part of the beast races. It’s just that no one thought she would actually manage it.

The sorceress looked at him as if she wanted to cry and looked down, playing with her fingers like a repentant girl about to be punished.

Yvain’s cock twitched but he shook himself into focus.

“Yes,” Roesia said in a small voice.

Nora raised her hands to her mouth with wet eyes before rushing to take the sorceress in her embrace. Due to their height difference Roesia was taken off the floor and hung limply in the goddess’s arms.

She looks so startled, Yvain thought with amusement. They really looked like sisters now. An intrusive image of Nora riding his face while Roesia rode his dick knocked through the corners of his mind unbidden.

Focus Yvain, he thought as he ran his hand across his face.

“Elly had a point. How are you going to live in Empryon now?” he asked.

“Do not worry my dear,” Nora said. “Whatever happens you’ll always have a home with me.”

“You both need to calm down,” Roesia said and gave a small tap to Nora’s side, prompting the goddess to release her. “I don’t understand why Elly felt the need to say that. None of us planned on staying here. Just a few days ago we were ready to leave the country. As for my family, they’ll have no problem accepting this change.”

“What makes you so sure?” Yvain asked.

“Have you not met them already?” the sorceress asked back with a questioning gaze.

Yvain was about to throw a retort out of reflex, in answer to the challenge in Roesia’s eyes, but he had met her family. And while they lamented the ‘eccentricity’ of their daughter and sister, it was plain for any outsider that the whole lot had a spice of abnormality. Even if it wasn’t apparent to the people involved.

“What’s your family like?” asked Nora.

“You’ll find that out when we... “ Roesia began, but she then looked at herself.

“Oh,” was all she said and looked up at Yvain, as if he held all the answers to her new questions. “How am I going to get to them inside the city?”

“Now you’re starting to think,” Yvain said while holding himself back from lifting her up and shoving his tongue down her throat. How in the stars didn’t he notice how adorable she was in the past?

“We’ll figure something out,” Nora said as she put a friendly hand on Roesia’s shoulder.

“We will,” Yvain said. “And there’s something we can find out right now.”

He looked at Roesia and took his usual brawling stance, “Attack me.”

Nora didn’t show any disapproval in his actions, but Roesia was startled. No surprise, as she had never attacked anything in her life. The sorceress shifted her eyes to Nora who only nodded at her with a smile.

“A single punch will suffice,” the goddess said.

Yvain thought Roesia would refuse, but an unusual, determined look appeared on her face. It was hot, he couldn’t deny. He and the sorceress had also never fought, so he was curious as to what possibilities her changes brought.

Yvain decided to forgo his stance, considering his opponent, and just puffed out his chest theatrically, “Give it your best shot, squirt.”

Roesia’s eyes squinted at him and, throwing all caution to the wind, closed the distance between them. The sorceress pulled back her fist clumsily and punched out so predictably and slowly that Yvain almost laughed. The attack landed, and nothing happened. Only a small thud sounded out from the point of contact as he didn’t budge one inch.

Roesia sighed sadly.

“How is this possible,” Yvain said.

The sorceress looked at him in confusion.

“I can’t speak for other races,” Nora said, “but dragons are able to exert large amounts of power with minimal training. Take Elly for example. She’s strong, stronger still with starlight. But that is mostly backed up by her harsh training which brought about her current body. If she and I were on equal ground, I would come out the victor if we only measured raw physical strength.”

Was that the reason she managed to beat Elly? If racial traits were something he had to also think about, measuring an opponent would become more difficult when starlight became involved.

“So that means?” Roesia asked looking from Nora to Yvain.

“I felt it,” Yvain said. “I don’t know if you’re as strong as a male human, but that attack you just landed on me felt much too powerful for having not trained at all.”

Roesia showed doubt at first, but neither Nora or Yvain showed signs of teasing, and so her reservation was slowly pushed away to be replaced with awe. The sorceress looked at her hands again as if she was seeing them for the first time in her life.

“He’s obviously too strong for me to measure this accurately,” the sorceress said as she stared down. “Is there a better way to gather information?”

“That’s easy, lift him up,” Nora said nonchalantly, yet inside Yvain a mini panic attack formed. Lifting him up would require Roesia to wrap her arms around him. He didn’t think he was ready for that type of contact with her without getting a massive boner. Already he had to fight his dick from showing its contours in front of everybody.

What is happening to me? Yvain thought. He had had better self-control when Nora first came into his life.

The sorceress didn’t take stock of his feelings though, lost in the haze of discovery as she always was. She encircled him with her arms with no hesitation and bent her legs, preparing herself to use all her strength. She didn’t pay attention to how hard he was getting nor to how his length was literally rubbing itself against her face. She also didn’t pay attention to her hands clutching onto his ass for leverage.

Nora was fully aware though. The goddess walked around the couple to get a better view as she covered her mouth with slitted eyes, trying to hold back one of her laughing fits as Roesia attempted something she had never been able to do before.

Yvain could only give the goddess an exasperated look and keep quiet.

Roesia gave a slight adorable grunt and lifted Yvain off the ground.

“I’m doing it, I’m doing it!” she said.

Nora gave the sorceress an encouraging smile as Yvain did his best to not be too embarrassed. He hadn’t been held up like that since he was a kid and it made matters just a tad more awkward when it was Roesia doing so.

He wouldn’t have to be embarrassed for too long though, as in her excitement the sorceress didn’t take into account the shifting body weight of both people and tripped.

She gave a shout as both her and Yvain fell to the ground. He could have easily maneuvered himself to land safely, but in a snap decision opted to allow his dick to land along with her face. It rubbed just a bit harder against her, sending slight pleasure running through him, but his weight also forced her head to hit the ground harder.

Yvain lifted himself off the sorceress quickly, scared that he might have hurt her, but she was calmly looking up at the ceiling in a daze.

“That didn’t hurt,” she said.

“We also have good endurance,” Nora said and winked at Yvain.

He shook his head while smiling, thinking of the time he slammed his girlfriend’s head against the shower wall by accident as he fucked her.

“How’s everything going?” came Nelimir’s question from the entrance to the bedroom.

“I guess we took too long,” Yvain said with some relief. Nora would try Roesia’s potions eventually, but he was more than happy to let that moment arrive later.

“I guess we did,” Roesia said almost quietly as she sat up. “You guys go on ahead, I don’t feel like eating right now. I’ll come up for the meeting.”

Yvain debated telling her to come up and just eat, a slight worry for her well-being he hadn’t felt before making itself known in his chest.

“Take your time. Call for me or Yvain if you need any help,” Nora said before he could speak and walked up the stairs.

Why me? Yvain thought as he took one last look at Roesia, who was again looking at her own hands while opening and closing them, before going up the stairs. If anyone could guide the sorceress well regarding her new form it was Nora, not him. Though he wouldn’t deny a plea for help, especially from her.

Nelimir came into view, already the question of where was Roesia forming itself on his expression.

“She’ll join us for the meeting,” Nora said. “She needs some time to adjust to her change. It’s not every day a human turns into a dragon.”

“That’s alright, she can eat then,” Nelimir said. “Did the potion not work?”

“Oh, we got sidetracked investigating her new changes unfortunately,” Nora said.

Nelimir motioned for them to sit at the table as he asked, “What are these changes?” Nora began to list out what the trio discovered as they sat and began to eat.

Elly was already sitting on the table eating her food, ignoring said conversation. But Yvain could see the goddess eye his master from time to time as her friendly discussion with Nelimir continued.

Selt was thankfully gone, probably into his room after he finished eating. His usual banter would have been incredibly grating on already stretched nerves.

Elly didn’t look at anybody. She just focused on her plate, even after she was done eating. But not for a lack of want or nervousness.

Yvain knew that she had a million thoughts running through her head. Something that rarely happened. But when she had her current look, it meant she was about to make a serious decision.

How much would Yvain give to know beforehand what that was. The first time it happened she decided to train him, the second she left him for two years while he was a young teen, the third was when she joined Draconian’s Tavern. What was it to be now?

After the rest were done eating, Nelimir went and knocked on Roesia’s door, who promptly answered and took her usual seat by Elly. His master looked relieved when the sorceress did so before going back to staring at her plate.

“We’ve been having an awful lot of meetings since Nora joined us, haven’t we?” Nelimir began. “But that’s just a part of recruiting new members into our team, any team. And Nora is a part of this guild.”

“Not officially,” Elly said, prompting a warning look from Nelimir.

“That may be, but we’ll be arriving at Triven tomorrow. We’ll go to the Cosmos branch and officially make Nora a member,” he said.

Elly didn’t disagree with their leader, but she didn’t look happy about his choice either.

“The question is, how are we going to get her inside the town and the building? Nora has to be there,” Yvain said.

Roesia immediately reached into one of her coat pockets and took out a vial containing a bluish, almost transparent liquid.

“This might be the solution,” she said.

“Is that what I think it is?” Nora asked, almost at the edge of her seat, ready to bounce up and snatch the potion.

The sorceress nodded, “I put it together while you guys ate. The process is the same as the one I made for myself. The one contrast is that I used my hair instead of yours.” She pushed the vial toward the goddess. “But I have to warn you, my changes should currently be considered permanent until proven otherwise. Our biological make-up differs, so I don’t know how effective it’ll be, but you need to be prepared to be turned into a human for good.”

“You cannot drink this,” Yvain said immediately. He would have her turn into a temporary frog rather than see her become permanently human. He would not allow Nora to cross such a line.

“Please don’t say that,” Nora said almost sadly.

She grabbed his hands and looked into his eyes with unexpected, heartbreaking despair, “Please allow me to drink it. I need to search for my daughter, you know I do.”

“I know that. But... “ He didn’t want to see Nora turn human at any cost. He couldn’t explain why. Yes, throughout his life he had had a general dislike for them, but all he needed to do was keep his distance. Something that wasn’t hard to begin with considering his predisposition. But to think of Nora turning into one of them almost made him sick to his stomach.

“I can at least make another potion like the one I drank if this one proves to be permanent,” Roesia chimed with an appeasing voice. “It should undo the effects of this one.”

“So you can change back into your original form,” Elly said.

Roesia looked away with a pout, “In ... in theory.”

Yvain ignored the two women and looked into Nora’s eyes.

“See? Nothing will go wrong,” she said.

He had a mind to just grab the vial and smash it into the ground, but it wouldn’t sit well with the rest. It would hurt Nora. And he did want to help her find Charlotte, despite his feelings.

With a sigh he finally acquitted, “Drink it.”

Nora beamed from ear to ear and gave him a deep kiss along with an all-encompassing side hug.

“Then let us see if we’ve at least found a solution for Nora,” Nelimir said and gestured toward the potion. “If you please.”

Nora didn’t take any time to grab the vial, open it, and drink its contents. She set the glass down and closed her eyes.

Everyone held their breath as they stared at the goddess. Even Roesia who created the potion, which didn’t help calm Yvain down, and Elly who was the least invested in all of this.

The goddess’s horns suddenly, and to his dismay, receded into her head. Her tail too, looking as if it was shoving itself into her behind, leaving only a hole in Elly’s torn pants and a view of her ivory skin.

“It worked,” Yvain said with harsh disappointment.

“It did more than that,” Nelimir said with astonishment.

Yvain looked up from Nora’s tail and found that her hair had turned blue. As blue as Roesia’s before her change. When the goddess opened her eyes, their electric yellow had faded to be replaced with a brilliant sapphire.

She was beautiful still, even with the change. Yet Yvain looked on in horror as every ounce of attraction he felt toward the goddess trickled out of his hands no matter how much he attempted to keep it gathered.

He felt like he wanted to cry. He felt like he wanted to punch his dick. He felt ashamed. Horrified. When he looked to Roesia, what was lost for Nora was still there for her. It bewildered and pissed him off to no end.

How in the stars was he supposed to face Nora like this? How would she feel when she found out that he didn’t want to have any type of physical relationship with her anymore? He had just asked her to be his girlfriend.

One slim comfort was the fact that he still felt an attraction to her. But it was that of friends. He still wanted to help her, he still considered her a part of Draconian’s Tavern. But would that give her any solace when she learned the truth?

A gasp of wonder brought Yvain back to reality and out of his depressive spiral.

Roesia stared at Nora as the goddess turned back into her original form. Every color and every appendage came back. With it, Yvain’s raging need to pound her through a wall.

He stared at Nora along with Roesia and everyone else. He had never been beaten toward an inch of death before. He had never basked in the grace of drinking in the joys of life after suffering such an experience. But from what Elly had described to him in the past, if any of it was true, then this had to be it.

“I forbid you from drinking that potion ever again,” he said.

Yvain expected Nora to protest, but instead she just said, “It’s not like it worked anyway,” with downcast eyes.

Her acceptance made him relieved, if not happy, but he still didn’t want her to look so defeated.

“Roesia,” Yvain began before looking at her, “what’s the difference between this change, and the one she had gone through when we first met her?”

“I can’t say for sure,” she said while scratching her cheek, “but considering at least hair color, and the fact that using up starlight made her turn back, it’s possible that her change was closer to an illusion, rather than metamorphosis.”

Roesia sounded confident enough, which meant he only needed to know one more thing.

“Can you recreate such an effect?” he asked. Nora had changed to look human before, yet he had still been attracted to her. It was a subdued attraction compared to how he viewed her now, but that was miles better to the emptiness that threatened to consume him just a minute ago.

“Maybe? I would need to study her more though and I’m lacking when it comes to illusions. It would probably take weeks, or even months,” the sorceress said. She then looked at Nora apologetically, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to treat you as a test subject.”

“No need for apologies, I understand there’s a process,” Nora said in an unusually reserved manner.

It hurt Yvain to see her like this. It was his fault, but he couldn’t bring himself to take back what he said.

Instead, he grabbed Nora’s hand. “I’ll do everything in my power to help you, we all will. Regardless, most of the work we’ll need to do only require those who are familiar with Empryon. You can do your part when we finally locate your daughter.”

The words seemed to assuage some of Nora’s gloominess, and she gave him a small smile.

“You’re right, it’s not like I currently have the strength to fight anyone either,” she said.

“How long until you regain it?” he asked, more than happy to shift her focus.

“I won’t know until I star absorbing starlight again,” she said. “It’d probably be a good idea to start as soon as possible.”

“Then let’s not tarry,” Nelimir said. “In the end we’ll really just have to leave you both inside the carriage while the rest of us go out. It’s a shame, Nora, but your official inauguration will have to wait.”

“That’s quite alri-”

“I’d like to apologize,” Elly cut in, forcing everyone to look at her. Yvain’s master was focused on Nora. “I’d like to apologize for the way I’ve treated you since you first got here, for jumping to conclusions, and attacking you.”

“Oh,” was all Nora said. She was obviously not expecting such words now. Even less from Elly herself. Yvain couldn’t blame her; he was just as shocked. But his master pinned the goddess with a patient stare as she waited for an answer.

“I ... I accept your apology,” Nora said, though obviously with some hesitation.

Elly nodded and continued as if that was all that needed to be said, “I have a way to help you both get around the problem your changes bring. It’s simple and risky, but it’ll at least take care of your horns. For the eyes we’ll need to grab contact lenses in Triven when we arrive, and I can’t imagine it’ll be difficult to hide the tails.”

The large woman then looked to Roesia, “Are you sure you won’t change back? You already said Nora could do so if that potion had worked, so don’t tell me you can’t. It would make all of our lives easier.”

The sorceress looked as if she was stuck between a sword and a rock. That look slowly transitioned into one of someone drowning as she looked from Nora and Elly. The poor woman obviously wanted to help, but she probably had her own reasons as to why she couldn’t or wouldn’t take the logical path.

Yvain would have condemned her in the past. But after what he went through just now, he was instead sympathizing with her.

“Forget I asked,” Elly said as she flicked the sorceress’s forehead, making her give a yelp.

“Sorry,” she said sadly as she rubbed the small bruise.

“What’s your plan for handling their horns?” Nelimir asked.

Elly looked at both women, now sporting a mischievous grin, “Follow me.”

“I am not subjecting myself to such humiliation,” Nora loudly proclaimed as she paced back and forth inside Yvain’s room.

He was lying on his bed, smiling softly as he recalled the image of Nora and Roesia with their hair perfectly wound up into twin tall spirals that covered their horns. Such a hairdo would seem impossible in anyone’s mind, but Elly somehow made it work. That didn’t stop it from looking ridiculous though.

Roesia didn’t mind and even merrily laughed, making Yvain want to hold her body in the air and pry her pussy open with his dick. But Nora looked like she had eaten something rancid.

Nelimir had done his best to hide himself, but his shaking shoulders had made the goddess’s expression even more mortified.

“It’s only for when you’re out and about,” Yvain said. “Think of it as an obstacle you need to overcome to rescue your daughter.”

“There has to be another way,” Nora said and bit her nails as she looked into one of the walls in the room for alternatives. “For the sake of stars, I’m a goddess and empress.”