Page 50

Bella and I stepped onto the street outside of the adventurer's guild. Between the meeting with the guildmaster and the twins suddenly being dragged away, I was emotionally drained. I just stood in the street looking at the sky. The three moons hung there, in their strange unfamiliar glory. The red and blue moons were waxing and were now nearly full, the white moon had stayed the same, full as the day I came here. That struck me as odd, why would the full moon not change like the others, why would the moons be in different phases in the first place?

Bella's gentle hand pulled me out of my thoughts. She intertwined our fingers and started dragging me along. "Come on, lets go this way."

My legs followed after her, I wasn't in the mood to argue and it was honestly refreshing to not be in charge for a moment. She led me down streets we'd never walked down before, past shops and restaurants. A few times she stopped to look around, unsure for a moment before she caught the trail she was leading me on and excitedly continued pulling me forward.

Eventually the trip led us to large three story building. This was the only building I had seen thus far that compared in size to the adventurer's guild. Without a word she pulled me through the front door. The lobby was much smaller than you would expect in such a large building and was manned by a young roguish looking male elf.

"Welcome to the silver spring public bath house. Are you two ladies planning on staying the night or just visiting the baths?"

"Ba- bath house?" I suddenly felt flustered. I hadn't ever really considered visiting a place like this. I'm not sure why but this was the most I felt embarrassed since I woke up here.

"Um" Bella looked at me a bit unsure but when I was too petrified to answer she looked back at the elf and answered. "One room for the two of us tonight, including the bath of course."

"Of course ma'am. That makes 30 silver total for the night then."

"Oh! Right uh..." Bella turned to me looking a bit embarrassed. I was holding onto the money but this was the first time she had really asked for anything. I took a breath to calm myself before digging my money pouch out of my backpack. I sorted out the 30 silver and stacked coins on the counter for him.

"Excellent ladies, you can follow my colleague down that hall there." He said pointing to our left.

A female elf led us down the left path and down a long hallway. "This first door is the area for non-beast races. We kindly ask that don't accidently enter the pools in this area so we can avoid introducing any fur or excess hair to the area. The water filtering system is better in the beast races section and designed to keep the water as clear as possible." My hackles had started to raise at first but as she went on I was placated. This didn't seem like a discrimination issue like I had initially assumed but rather a pragmatic one. I reflected on my reaction, I don't have any idea if I had received much discrimination in my past life but something there struck a nerve in me. I'm not really sure why but this whole situation was rather stressful for me and I'm unsure why.

I was pulled from my thoughts when we reached the end of the hallway. "Alright ladies, this area through here is the women's changing room. Please do not take any clothing into the bath with you. If you feel the need to cover yourselves in the bathing area please use the provided towels. To your right are the stairs leading into the private rooms. Your room number is 13, there is a female guard posted by the clothes baskets but it's safer to store things in your room, especially your more expensive looking equipment." She said while looking at the very ornate looking Mimi sitting in my sword sheathe. I feel a little bad about it but it can be kind of easy to forget there was actually a third person here the whole time.

I went up the stairs and unlocked our room. The feeling this place gave off was an Asian hot spring vibe until we got to our room, which looked more like a modern motel room than anything else. Admittedly, it was higher quality than the inn we had been staying at but it felt like a very odd contrast.

I looked down at the key in my hand while taking a short rest on the bed. "Thirteen huh?"

"Hm?"

I laughed. "Oh nothing. It's just that thirteen is considered an unlucky number where I come from. Somewhat of a superstition. I don't remember where it comes from though."

I set the key aside and started stripping off my grimy clothes. "Mimi, we're planning on going downstairs and taking a dip in the baths. You can come with us if you want but you'll probably have to shift into a different form."

Mimi shifted back into her humanoid form and sat on the bed while looking around. "No thanks, I'm not that interested. This room looks like one of the rooms back at the dungeon." Mimi was walking around the room closely inspecting all of the pieces of furniture.

"This is a bedroom, well kind of, this is a room we're paying to borrow to sleep in."

"Weird, oh hey, are you going to do that sex thing when you get back?"

"Uhh... I don't know yet. I'll get back to you on that."

I looked over at Bella who was blushing while looking down. She had stripped out of her clothes completely by this point. Her large chest was on display and her cute pink nipples were hard and poking out of her fur. She held one of the white towels over her lap.

I finished undressing and looked at my clothes. They were drenched in blood, even under where my breastplate had been. The rough unbleached fibers of my shirt completely dyed red now. The pants I had were stained too but their color made it a lot less noticeable. My breastplate looked like it needed servicing after the rough trip but I would have to find someone to teach me that kind of thing later. Looking at my clothes, I'm a little surprised no one said anything about it this whole time. Maybe this sort of thing is common enough that no one is worried about it.

I walked over to Bella fully nude now and felt oddly anxious about going into the baths. Bella smiled gently at me with a small blush on her face. I looked down at her hands that held the towel wrapped over her waist. "Is that uh, going to be a problem?" I asked.

Bella's grin deepened, she shook her head before pulling the towel away to reveal a cleft between her legs. "That new trait we share lets me change this whenever I like now. It takes quite a bit of my mana to keep it like this though." She wrapped the towel back around her waist and stood up.

I felt uneasy. "Would you have preferred that part to have changed when you did?"

She blushed and looked away. "I don't really know yet. I think I still prefer how I am normally but being able to switch is nice for situations like this. A-And maybe we could try it out later..." she finished with a flustered grin.

I kissed her forehead. "Of course. I'm always happy to experiment with you." I picked up my own towel and wrapped it around my waist. "A-alright lets go..."

If Bella noticed how nervous I was she didn't say anything. She just held my hand and led me out the door and down the stairs. Bella taking charge a bit and pulling me along was a new feeling that I kind of liked.

We entered a room where other beastfolk and a number of demi-beastfolk like Morrigan and Torien were cleaning their bodies in a long open waterfall than ran along one wall. Bella pulled me under the water and immediately began scrubbing her fingers through my fur, working to pull out as much of the grime as she could. After a bit she turned me around so she could work on my back and I used the opportunity to clean my more intimate places.

There wasn't any soap but the water itself was very lightly scented and made the tangles in my fur easier to pull out. It was like the water was infused with hair conditioner or something. When Bella was satisfied I began working on her body, giving her much the same treatment before working on her back. I peeked around briefly and was relieved to see that we weren't the only ones helping groom each other. It didn't seem like it was that out of place to help each other intimately like this.

I wasn't embarrassed by my relationship with Bella of course but after talking so much about the Tamin church, it just seems safer to be more cautious about it than I had been this whole time.

Once we finished up, we finally got to go into the large bathing room. Rather than one large pool like a hot spring, there were lots of pools all over the ground like little hot tubs set into the floor all over the place. Bella led me over to a quiet corner away from most of the other bathers and got into one of the baths.

I slipped in next to her and sighed. The hot water felt sooooooo good on my sore muscles. I slid down all the way to my neck and leaned against the wall of the pool, just luxuriating in the relaxing waters. Bella scooted closer to me and leaned her shoulder against mine before intertwining our fingers once again. For a long while we just sat there in the hot water, letting ourselves unwind after such a long and dangerous trip.

After a while Bella looked over at me with a slightly anxious look on her face. "Lilith I think we need to talk about some stuff..."

The words instantly twisted my stomach in a knot. I may not remember too much about my previous life but those words definitely triggered some emotions in me.

"What... do you wanna talk about?"

Bella squeezed my hand under the water, "We need to talk about sex and... the others..."

Knowing the kind of conversation this was likely to be, I cast [Zone of Silence] around us. The quiet chattering and sounds of water ceased around us.

I took a deep breath. "Bella if you're not comforta—

Bella shook her head and continued, "That's not it, actually... I think it's probably important that we have sex with other people. Even if I didn't want to share you with others, [Sexual Appetite] puts us in a difficult position. And if everyone you turn into a succubus gets that trait too, then that will also put them in a difficult position. Mimi's kind of special since she can eat other things but a time will come when it can't be avoided anymore."

I let her words sink in before I replied, "Are you sure? I'm the Origin, maybe I could figure something else out."

Bella shook her head. "With what you told me about Succubi when we first talked about it, do you really think that you could change it into anything else? One of the only things you could say with certainty was that Succubi feed on sex."

I squeezed her hand. "I don't want to do anything you don't feel comfortable with."

She leaned her body more against mine. "I know. But I just don't think we have much of a choice." She took a breath to steady herself. "Besides, it could be fun to have other people join us from time to time... And for the people who know our secret, maybe join us for real."

"Morrigan and Torien then?"

Bella nodded "And Mimi obviously. All of that assumes they would want to be included though. They would have to be okay with sleeping with girls, and... whatever my situation is."

I took a deep breath. "This might be overstepping some bounds but Morrigan confided in me that she likes other women. That she's always liked women and is scared of being sold off to a man."

"Well, that does make things easier. Did she want you to keep it a secret?"

"Ehh, it was implied but mostly directed at keeping it from her sister. Torien already knows though, she brought it up to me completely unprompted. Probably because I woke up with you both hanging on me in the dungeon."

"Oh" Bella said looking down shyly.

"So... when you say join us for real... You mean like, a polyamorous relationship?"

"Polyamorous?"

I hesitated for a moment to think of a proper definition, "Like... a group of multiple lovers who all consider themselves in one multi-person communal relationship."

"I... didn't know that was a thing. But, that would be nicer than what I was thinking."

"What were you thinking?"

"I... just thought it would make sense for each of us to have multiple girlfriends and boyfriends... and maybe share sometimes. I didn't really think it would be as one big group."

"Would you prefer it to be separate like that?"

Bella blushed and turned away. "No... that actually sounds nice. Nicer than what I was thinking. It wouldn't be cheating but... doing it the way I was thinking might make me feel a bit jealous and lonely sometimes. Doing it the way you said would make me feel included even if I didn't always participate... I'd like that a lot more."

I smiled. "That sounds good to me. But that means we need to be extra careful making sure we communicate with each other. You need to tell me if something makes you uncomfortable or you don't like someone in that way or if something is going to be a fling or more serious. And if we can't agree then that person is automatically off the table. We need to be on the same page or else this sort of thing will never work. So promise me you won't keep your feelings buried if you're feeling neglected, or jealous, or whatever. Even if it's just me at first, I need you to be as honest about your feelings as you can be. Promise?"

Bella nodded. "I promise."

"Good." I kissed my beautiful deer girl on her cute nose.