"That bad, huh?" Sera asked, kissing at Beth's stomach as she floated in the water.

  "It's not bad, I'm just being a baby about it," Beth replied with another sigh. "My family's fine, other than my mom, and even she's okay. I just…don't connect well with them. That, and I don't feel the same kind of super deep connection a lot of other people feel. I mean, I love them, but I don't feel as close as other people. I have friends who, even after graduating school, would still call their parents every day. Every. Single. Day. That's just…mind-blowing to me."

  "Hmm, I sorta understand. Can't say I fully get it, though, as my relationship isn't like that. Maybe even from the other end, I guess? My family doesn't really get me, and they're always frustrated with all the stuff I'm doing," Sera said.

  "Like working in a brothel?" Beth asked with a grin.

  "Yeah, the whole clan was divided on it. Not like it's their decision, it's mine, but they were in an uproar over it. And knowing the clan, they're still hotly debating it even now," Sera said with an eyeroll.

  "That's what, four years of discussing your business?" Beth asked with a slight shake of her head, water splashing her face.

  "We're dragons," Sera said, as if that explained it. At Beth's look, she continued, "We live a long time even without the Path. It doesn't mean we mature any slower or anything like that, but long-lived people both get set in their ways and tend to chew on an issue forever. That happens even with humans and orcs and other, shorter-lived species. Imagine a species that can live up to a thousand years without considering the Path. My great-grandmother still complains about something my mother, her granddaughter, did over a hundred years ago and they fight about it. The clan just chews on things forever and refuses to swallow it down or spit it away."

  "That…has to totally suck," Beth murmured, getting a strong growl of affirmation from the dragon girl. "Glad I just have a bit of a weird relationship compared to that, no offense."

  "None taken," Sera said with a shrug, partially lifting Beth up as she did so. "Are you done or more calls?"

  "I want to place a couple more. You can do your own thing, if you want," Beth answered.

  "You're my thing, now," Sera said. Her face scrunched up a second later and she said, "Wait, that sounded wrong, I didn't mean it like that."

  "It's fine, Ser. I understood what you meant," Beth replied, pulling the dragon girl down into a warm kiss.

  "I'm glad you get me so much," Sera grumbled, starting to kiss Beth's stomach again as she made another call.

  "Hello? Beth?!" the voice exclaimed in shock.

  "Is it that surprising I'm calling?" Beth asked, slightly exasperated.

  "Well, yeah, I mean, we haven't talked in months," Andrea replied, a note of confusion in her voice.

  Beth winced heavily, Sera perfectly arching one eyebrow at the expression. "Sorry, I'm, uh, really fucking bad at this stuff. I just wanted to call and, uh, catch up, you know."

  "Oh, totally, I understand," Andrea replied brightly. "So, tell me all the juicy gossip. I heard you bumped into the Young Scions again! And even beat them up!"

  "Well, it didn't happen exactly like that…" Beth said, frowning a bit at the weird rumor.

  "So? Tell me!" Andrea exclaimed.

  "Well, it was like this…" Beth started, explaining the competition and how she and Blood wound up winning.

  "You won?! Like, won-won?" Andrea asked eagerly.

  "Well, yeah, we got first place. Won a pretty sizeable bet on ourselves, too," Beth said, smiling a little at recounting the story.

  "That's amazing. What are you up to now, after showing up the best and brightest in the galaxy?" Andrea asked.

  "Pah, come on. You know the Young Scions aren't the best and brightest," Beth replied with a tone of exasperation.

  "Come onnnnn! They're the best around, the young defenders of the peace and hope for our brighter future. Haven't you seen any of the episodes?" Andrea asked, doing well to hide the humor, Beth only hearing it as totally serious.

  "Andrea, you could beat basically any of them one-on-one. Then, there's Adam and Bjorn. Those guys could take out most of their little PR stunt group by themselves. They aren't nearly as hot shit as the rumors make it out to be," Beth said with an eyeroll that Andrea couldn't see.

  "Yeah, but, like, it's the mythos, right? They're so…so…so much more, right?" Andrea said, now actually sounding a little starry-eyed.

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  "Andrea, they're just people, and kinda dumb ones," Beth said, rolling her eyes at that, which didn't escape Sera's notice.

  "They can't be that bad," Andrea huffed over the line.

  "Look, let's not get into a debate about those idiots," Beth replied tartly. "What have you been up to since our little expedition?"

  "I don't know if it was you or the rest of the group, but I got the bug real bad," Andrea said. "I had to fight, and fight, and fight. I've been training or fighting in the arena or fighting in the wilds constantly since we talked last. I'm almost at the point of my next Rebirth, and I leveled my main weaponskill once and am about to do it again. I can't let myself fall behind. More than that, I want to win our next duel."

  "You would have beat me in the last one if I didn't have a cheat skill," Beth said, thinking about how she had almost got beaten down by the smaller girl before winning the match with her teleportation skill.

  "Close and almost is for losers, and I won't be a fucking loser. Not anymore," Andrea said determinedly.

  "I never thought of you as anything but amazing, Andrea. You came really close to beating me more than once and I have a ton of advantages that would make most rich heirs blush," Beth consoled her.

  "Well, we'll have to fight a lot more the next time we meet up. And don't be a stranger; you can always send me texts whenever," Andrea said.

  "I'll start hitting you up more. We'll have to get a big group together and hang out, but I've got some other stuff on the docket here starting in a week," Beth said, understanding Andrea was getting a bit antsy.

  "Cool. Hit me up. I'll talk with you later," Andrea said.

  "Later, girlie," Beth said, grinning as she mimicked Baelvyr's tone on her sign-off.

  "That one looked like it went better," Sera said.

  "Yeah, one of the people we hung out with on the world before last. I'll have to introduce you to them, they're all pretty solid," Beth said.

  "I'm looking forward to it," Sera said. "Anyone romantically interesting?"

  "Well, maybe," Beth said, lifting a hand out of the water and wiggling it. "Handful of guys, which I’m not into, and then a few girls who were nice. Don't know about how you are with phoenixes?"

  "I've got no problems with phoenixes. They're hot, both metaphorically and literally, in several senses," Sera replied with a grin.

  "Well, the phoenix we met is aspected to water and some kind of special lightning, void, I think. So, I don't know how hot she'd be in a literal sense, but she was crazy pretty," Beth said.

  "This sounds even more fun the more you describe. We should gather them up," Sera said.

  "Yeah, we'll have to see what the Blue Queen has for us. Then maybe we can hit a few other things before our next job for Mortaine. It just depends on how the timing is going to work out," Beth explained.

  "Sure, I'm here now; I'll follow you wherever," Sera said with a huge, fang-displaying grin.

  "Hmm, I love you," Beth said, Sera laughing in delight before leaning down and kissing her firmly.

  "Umm, hot tub now," Sera said after breaking off, pushing Beth over to the wall and lifting her up into the hot tub.

  "It's a bit indulgent, to do this early in the morning," Beth muttered as she settled in Sera's lap.

  "Beth, we're rich, powerful, and don't have a boss. Who gives a fuck?" Sera asked, not able to stop herself from chuckling a little at the end to show she wasn't seriously upset.

  "Eh, sure, I guess," Beth said, but did lean back against Sera, the back of her head on the top of Sera's left breast and chest.

  "Maybe we should get you an elixir to change your height," Sera said, caressing Beth slowly under the water.

  "Eh, I'm fine," Beth replied. "I like my current height, and I like the difference in our heights. Unless you really want me to be taller?"

  "No, not at all, I like you just fine how you are. I was just commenting that you might be uncomfortable being so much shorter," Sera said, waving off the concern.

  "Oh, okay, good. No, I like you being a lot taller like this; having a taller girlfriend is nice," Beth said.

  "First time?" Sera asked, a bit of a loaded question.

  "Well, I had one girlfriend before. She was the first person I did anything sexual with as well, but it didn't wind up working out," Beth explained. "She was pretty short, too, believe it or not. I don't want to say anything bad, because she was great, but she wasn't quite as crazy about fighting and leveling like I am, and…well, things happened, and we broke up."

  "Not pleasant memories?" Sera asked more seriously.

  "Well, yes and no," Beth sighed. "It's been a little while, at least a handful of months, really more like a year in subjective time. I've had some time to reflect a bit, and I realize that we just weren't super compatible. That and, honestly, I was a pretty shitty girlfriend. I don't want to lay blame at her feet when I acted like a bitch."

  "That's…surprisingly mature, considering you're still a snot-nosed brat," Sera said with a little chuckle, grunting as Beth elbowed her right in the short ribs.

  "And that was very mature of you, name-calling like that," Beth said, though Sera could sense the smirk in her words.

  "I'll show you just how mature I can be," Sera said in a bit of a sultry voice, tipping Beth's head back with a single large claw under her chin before kissing her passionately on the lips. Beth pushed back against Sera, pressing their mouths together before eagerly opening her lips, allowing Sera's huge tongue to dart inside in an instant.

  She didn't even notice that Blood and Tasha had joined them at some point until she came up for air and noticed the wolf and demoness next to her. She leaned back and let Sera nuzzle her, unable to stop herself from grinning at the kissing sounds coming from her right, a certain demoness turned fully around to give a certain wolf her undivided attention. Beth closed her eyes and enjoyed Sera's body pressed against hers and the dragon's attentions as she totally relaxed. She woke up some time later to find Sera still nuzzling her but the other two gone, not even in on the balcony at all.

  "They left?" Beth asked.

  "Went for a massage," Sera muttered into her neck.

  "Come on," Beth said muzzily, standing in the hot tub before picking Sera up. She made her way over to the divider and slipped down the waterfall into the larger pool, swimming with Sera in her arms to cool off.

  "Don't get me too cold," Sera said with a grin.

  "Oh, I'll warm you back up," Beth said, leaving the pool and getting a little flash fry from the dragon to dry off.

  "Alright! Let's go to the arena!" Sera exclaimed, standing up out of Beth's arms in the central room.

  "Well, that wasn't what I meant, but sure," Beth said, blinking slowly at the dragon's excitement.

  "Fighting will warm me up and I clearly need to train," Sera said with a grin. "Besides, isn't this what you like?"

  "And just when everyone had finally gotten me to relax," Beth said with a shake of her head.

  "We'll get a massage later or something," Sera said with a laugh, making a half-jacket and a thong appear as she grabbed Beth's hand to pull her out of the room. Beth made a dress appear along with some simple shoes that she had bought earlier before the dragon girl fully dragged her out of the room and through the main complex and back to the arena. Sera took her down to a training room first, eagerly locking the room to them and hopping up on the stage after closing the door.

  Beth leapt up onto the stage, changing her dress and shoes for her armor and combat boots in midair. She faced off with Sera, activating the training field before they clashed, slamming into each other in the center of the ring. Beth used her greatsword, not pushing, but fighting on an even footing with Sera. This wasn't about testing Sera, or showing off that she was better than the dragon girl, it was about helping Sera get in some training. She was also, at the same time, continuing to observe how the dragon girl fought. Beth thought that Sera would make a very good front-liner, even a tank, with how sturdy she was and how easily she was able to hold opponents off with her long spear and great reach.

  That reach was even greater now, and Sera had to get used to it after altering her height. It wasn't too big of a deal, especially because she had commented that she had played with her height a couple times before, so she was somewhat used to it, but she still did need to adjust to it. A couple hours of sparring with Beth was just what Sera needed to get locked back in and make sure all her moves were correct, her positioning was solid, and she could deploy her peak Silver skills with precision and accuracy.

  Beth pushed Sera after an hour or a little more, trying to get her to focus in on her spear work even more. She started using both her blade and fists to attack and deflect, weaving in the occasional kick and knee to break through Sera's range and push her around the stage. She didn't swing with lethal force, but hit hard enough Sera was forced to block, deflect, and dodge nearly constantly by the end. This led to the dragon girl collapsed on the ground again, but not from fatal damage from a duel but just from exhaustion. She had greater END than Beth did, for sure, but it was a lot different being on the receiving end of a heavy beating than the person probing someone's defenses and doing the pushing and attacking.