{Armia}
Something small and rough was licking Armia’s face.
In her dream, it was a tiny kitten, all fluff and purrs. The kind Darien used to bring home, much to their father’s exasperation...
"Mmm... Come ’ere..." Armia murmured as she pulled that kitten closer.
But, then she woke up.
Reality crashed in as Armia opened her eyes to find Isabella’s pink tongue dragging across her cheek.
"What are you doing?" It wasn’t really a question. More like a warning.
Isabella, predictably, just grinned, her fox ears twitching playfully.
"Waking you up! Margaret said you’ve been oversleeping lately." Her tail wagged. "I thought I’d help, ya know?"
Despite that, Armia couldn’t help but consider if Isabella had other motivations.
[Melisa did mention Isabella’s been acting weird lately,] Armia thought, wiping her face. [Though ’weird’ for Isabella is a pretty high bar.]
"You could have just, I dunno, knocked," Armia grumbled, trying to sit up. An attempt was made and failed, because Isabella was on top of her.
"But then I wouldn’t get to feel your morning wood~" Isabella then brought her hips down to grind on top of her. "Impressive as always!"
"Get out."
"Aww, don’t be like that! We’re roomies now!" Isabella somehow managed to bring herself even closer, borderline melting into Armia. "We should bond! Compare dick sizes! Have a sword fight!"
Despite herself, Armia felt her lips twitch. There was something almost... ALMOST comforting about Isabella’s relentless horniness. It was familiar. Unchanging.
"Don’t you have your own morning wood to deal with?" Armia asked, noting the obvious bulge in Isabella’s ridiculously short nightgown.
"Oh, this?" Isabella ground against her again, shamelessly. "This is just my natural state of being. Though if you’re offering to help~"
"I’m not."
"Pfft, yeah right. Come ooon, take your pick. You want me face-down, ass-up? Or, do you want to be the one on all fours again~?"
Armia felt her face heat up at the memory. Her ass had mostly recovered from that last pounding it took. She could faintly recall the way Isabella’s cock slid against her-
"We’re not talking about that." She cut her own thoughts off.
"Fine, fine!" Isabella rolled onto her back, tail swishing. "But you can’t deny we work well together. Your big darian dick stretching my tight little-"
"OUT."
Isabella bounced off the bed, giggling.
"See you at breakfast! Try not to think about my ass too much while you get dressed~"
[Ugh,] Armia thought as the door closed behind the kitsune. [She’s too much.]
But the morning heaviness, the weight of grief that usually pressed down on her when she first woke up, had lifted somewhat. Maybe that had been Isabella’s intent all along.
[No,] Armia decided, finally getting up. [She’s just naturally that horny. There’s nothing deep about it.]
---
Later, at the academy, Armia watched as Princess Aria practically dragged Melisa away, muttering something about their project.
[Yeah, right,] Armia thought, her tail swishing thoughtfully. [More like making sure Melisa doesn’t cause any more magical disasters before the showcase.]
The showcase. Just a few days away now. Their chance to finally strike back at the Shadow Mages, to make them pay for everything they’d done. For Darien.
Isabella sidled up beside her.
"So, you think it’ll work?"
Armia watched Melisa disappear around a corner with the princess.
"It has to," she replied. "Otherwise..." Read the latest on freewebnovel
She didn’t finish the thought. Didn’t need to. Isabella just nodded, her usual playfulness subdued.
Otherwise, more attacks could come. More casualties. More injuries.
Armia had no desire to see that and, clearly, neither did Isabella.
"Well," Isabella’s grin returned, though it seemed a bit forced, "at least if it all goes wrong, we’ll go out with a bang! Maybe literally, ya know?"
Armia snorted.
"That’s not as comforting as you think it is."
"No?" Isabella’s tail brushed against Armia’s leg. "Want me to comfort you some other way~?"
"Fuck off."
But as the kitsune bounced away, Armia found herself smiling slightly.
[No,] she wiped that smile off her face. [Stop it. Stop right there.]
---
{Melisa}
If looks could kill, Melisa would already be nothing but ashes right now under Aria’s burning glare.
Or, at least, it felt that way. The princess stood with her arms crossed, her tiny frame somehow managing to radiate enough menace to fill the entire vacant classroom. The royal knights behind her were just overkill at this point.
[At least if they kill me, Zephyra can probably bring me back... if she’s memorized my spell, anyway, and can find a sacrifice.] Melisa thought, her tail curling nervously.
"Well?" Aria’s voice could have frozen hellfire. "How goes the study of your... spell?"
The way she said ’spell’ made it sound like ’potential murder weapon,’ again, as if letting the king die would have been better.
"It’s been... interesting," Melisa began carefully. "Zephyra and I have been doing healing tests in the palace gardens. Mostly with lizards and insects. Just basic healing stuff, you know?"
One of the knights shifted slightly. Melisa tried not to imagine how quickly he could draw his sword.
"And?" Aria prompted, her grey eyes intense.
"Well, at the end, we tried something different. There was this lizard that was... um, freshly deceased." Melisa’s tail wrapped around her waist. "And when I used the spell on it..."
She trailed off, remembering how the seemingly dead creature had suddenly started breathing again.
"What happened?" Aria uncrossed her arms, leaning forward slightly.
"It... came back to life?" Melisa squeaked out. "Like, completely back. Moving, breathing, the whole... ’being alive’ thing."
The silence that followed was deafening.
"A resurrection spell..." Aria murmured, her eyes wide. "You created a resurrection spell."
"Clearly a flawed one though!" Melisa added quickly. "I mean, we don’t know the long-term effects, and Zephyra seemed pretty concerned about the potential long-term effects, and-"
But Aria wasn’t listening anymore. A smile was spreading across her face - the first genuine one Melisa had ever seen from her.
"This is perfect," the princess said, actually clapping her hands together. "If Father does... if the worst happens, we can simply bring him back! Actually, can’t you bring back..." She went on to ask if Melisa could bring the queen back but in her thoughts, Melisa was already declining.
[Oh no,] Melisa thought. [Oh no no no.]
"I don’t think that’s a good idea," she said carefully. "Not just the queen but, I mean, like, in general, you know?"
Aria’s smile vanished.
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Again, that one knight shifted a bit.
"Why not? You just said it works."
"Yeah, on a lizard!"
[And Kimiko. And probably the king too.]
"A-And even then," she continued, "we don’t know what’s going to happen to it. Plus..." She hesitated.
"Plus what?"
[How do I explain this without mentioning I’m from another world?]
"Look, there are... stories, okay? About resurrection magic. They never end well. Like, NEVER. It’s always ’oh sure, they came back, but their soul is trapped in eternal torment’ or ’whoops, they’re evil now’ or ’congratulations, you’ve created a zombie!’"
Aria’s eye twitched.
"Zombie?"
"A-a thing that came back to life and wants to eat your br- look, point is, they never end well."
"Those are just stories."
"Maybe! But maybe they’re stories for a reason!" Melisa stood up, starting to pace. "Think about it - if resurrection magic was safe and simple, wouldn’t someone have figured it out before now? There has to be a reason it’s not a thing! I mean, really, I made the world’s first working resurrection spell? Do you believe that?"
That was a critical hit!
"Well... You are different," she reasoned. "You are a nim that can use magic. Perhaps that is why your spell works so well."
[Except I’m actually not that special.]
"Still," Melisa insisted, "we should focus on fixing what’s wrong with him now, not planning to resurrect him later. Because let me tell you, based on every story I’ve ever heard about resurrection, that path leads to nothing but trouble."
"And what if we can’t fix him?" Aria’s voice was barely a whisper. "What if he... and we could have saved him, but didn’t try because of some stories?"
Melisa’s tail drooped.
"Then we deal with that if it happens," she said gently. "But right now, let’s focus on keeping him alive in the first place, okay? Zephyra’s studying the effects, and once we understand what’s happening..."
"Fine," Aria cut her off, her royal mask sliding back into place. "But keep practicing the spell. Just in case."
As the princess swept out of the room, her knights following like heavily armed ducklings, Melisa slumped back into her chair.
[Great,] she thought. [Now I just have to figure out how to explain why resurrecting the king would be a terrible idea without mentioning all the fantasy novels and zombie movies from my past life.]
She really hoped Zephyra would figure out how to help the king soon. Because if not...
Well, Melisa had read enough stories to know how this usually ended. And it was never with "and they all lived happily ever after."
More like "and then everything went to hell because someone just HAD to play with life and death."