Chapter 261

The plan was simple.

After all, they had not just artifacts that broke spatial continuity, though only in the context of genitalia—and whew, wasn’t that a sentence?—but also an extremely skilled illusionist on standby.

So recharging without Astrid noticing? More than doable.

If still tricky.

All teams needed short breaks to regather energy and drink water, maybe have a snack, and so it was on that typical lull in the adventure that Zoey was expected to recharge.

They used their most recent room to do so. The positioning they ended up in wasn’t ideal: Zoey, Maddy, and Delta took a seat on the brick outcropping of a large fireplace. Rosalie and Astrid chose to stay standing, facing the other three, not sitting because they wanted to ‘keep their blood flowing.’ They were cut from a different cloth than Maddy and Zoey. Magic could be physically tiring in an indirect way, and the two mages weren’t in nearly equivalent condition to the warriors, so sitting was—well, nice, to recover. Delta probably would’ve stayed standing too, but she’d sat on the other side of Maddy with a knowing grin, wanting to cozy up with her because she knew what was coming.

Maddy had been chosen as the ‘keeper of the cock,’ as Delta had once whimsically titled the owner of the linking plate. As the illusionist of the group, she was best suited to discreetly pleasuring Zoey without the rest of the group knowing. And ideally speaking, even Rosalie and Delta wouldn’t know which ‘rest-stops’ Zoey and Maddy used.

The two of them met each other’s eyes, and Zoey inclined her head in acknowledgment. I need a recharge, the look said. Maddy understood, because her cheeks dusted pink.

Astrid was a warrior, and of similar advancement to Maddy. It wasn’t impossible for non-magic classes to be able to sense magic, or even see through illusions if they were skilled enough, but since Maddy was on equal footing with Astrid and she was an incredibly talented spellcaster, she was capable of fooling the berserker.

Which wasn’t something they were taking on faith. Subtle experiments had definitively proved the fact. Astrid had yet to notice any of Maddy’s illusions, something the blue-haired girl had been probing to various extents. Even Rosalie couldn’t see through Maddy’s illusions, though if she knew to look for one and focused, she could sense that there was energy in the air that shouldn’t be there. But so long as Astrid didn’t have a good reason to look, she wouldn’t know. And certainly wouldn’t be able to see through it.

Thankfully, Rosalie and Astrid were speaking with each other, buying Maddy a moment to lay the foundations of her illusion. Zoey didn’t see what the spell did, but likely Maddy had conjured an image of them behaving normally.

The problem with this encounter was that Maddy couldn’t adjust their faces in real-time. She could hide their bodies and hands, but not their faces. Because if one of them needed to talk to Astrid, Maddy couldn’t conjure an illusion of Zoey’s lips in real-time to match what Zoey was saying.

So. They had to keep control of their expressions. Not necessarily an easy task with what they would be doing.

Zoey sensed the illusion settle over them as Maddy completed her magical working. Another smaller, much subtler spell pinged, and Maddy leaned over to ask in a whisper, “Just to clarify, we are doing it, right?”

Zoey knew without being told Maddy had masked the words. The skilled illusionist could speak privately whenever she wanted, using a sound-barrier. Such a useful skillset for exhibitionism, Zoey mused. Which was no coincidence, because she’d learned a while ago Maddy quite enjoyed public exposure. This encounter might be more exciting to her than even Zoey.

“Yeah,” Zoey said, leaning back and catching snippets of Rosalie and Astrid’s conversation. They were talking about previous fights, and how they’d engaged together. Theirs was the most intertwined dynamic within the team, with Rosalie even having a skill dedicated to their synergy. “I’m near empty, so be thorough.”

“Like, um, what? Do you have something planned?”

Zoey turned a smirk toward her. “You pick. Whatever you can get away with.” She waggled her eyebrows. “We only have a few minutes, though, so be fast.”

“Hey,” Delta murmured into Maddy’s ear, so quiet even Zoey barely heard. “Cut me in. Lemme see and hear.”