Action Pack 7: Homecoming

Disclaimer: The characters, settings, etc. contained within this
story all belong to paetrasslave and may not be used in other
media without express permission. Why anyone would want to, she's
not sure.

This story is incredibly sexual in nature with many preferences
and depictions on display that will probably offend many people.
Anyone under 18 or possessed of an easily offended mindset should
leave now. For everyone else, that's probably all the reason you
need to stay.

Codes: ff inc

----------

Synopsis: The sisters arrive in Zenith, and after an unpleasant
surprise, Jein starts forming plans for the difference she can
make with her circumstances.

  Hardly anyone even looked up at them as the Devyre sisters
reappeared on a bustling street corner. All the same, Jein
grabbed her sisters and backpedaled until she felt a wall behind
her.
  Despite initial appearances, every sight that met her eyes made
it clearer that they weren't back on Earth. The cars hovered down
a sleek gray road that almost looked to be made of some kind of
plastic, not asphalt. Most of the people hurrying past were
human, but among them was a group of black-skinned elves, and
behind them a robot. It was little more than a torso and arms,
carrying a briefcase in each hand as it floated along the
sidewalk. Lining the sides of the street were box-shaped
buildings of various colors, but beyond them were soaring
skyscrapers, most of which didn't look like any she'd seen back
home. One had transparent purple tubes sticking out of it every
which way, while another looked to be a giant spool of wire with
dots of people scurrying back and forth inside the coils.
  "Is this Zenith?" Jein murmured.
  "Where'd you think you were?" asked a rhino-faced hulk in a
blue cap and uniform.
  "Maybe you missed us appearing out of thin air a second ago,"
Jein retorted.
  He grunted at them. "Zenith's a big place, there's even room
for the weirdoes. But not right in the middle of the walkway, so
get moving you three."
  "Fine," Jein said and started off the other way, her sisters
following. "Where are we going, anyway?"
  "The palace, of course. It's been a while but I don't think
we're that far," Cathallis explained. She stopped one of the
hovering cars, a dark red number, and talked to the driver for a
minute. He didn't look human at all, rather just a purple lump of
fuzz the size of a medicine ball with a number of long tendrils
protruding out and resting on what looked like a steering wheel.
Cathallis said something to him in a weird, guttural language,
dropped a few coins on the seat next to him, and the door to the
rear seat opened.
  After a short ride where Cathallis and Jasami stayed pressed up
their sister the entire time, they stepped out the taxi and onto
a street with significantly less traffic and no buildings over
three stories for blocks in any direction.
  Straight up the street looked to be their destination. It
terminated suddenly at a gray metal wall with a pair of thick
double doors in the middle with human guards on either side and
toting rifles with metal coils around the barrels that glowed
ever so slightly. Every twenty feet or so the walls were capped
with domed turrets sprouting nasty-looking cannons.
  "Friendly place," Jein muttered. "I guess I don't blame `em,
though."
  "So we just walk right up there?" Jasami said dubiously.
  "We've nothing to fear," Cathallis said, but her eyes quivered
uncertainly. "We're the rightful heirs to this throne, and it's
not as if the Free Territories have been turned into some kind
hellish dystopia while we were gone."
  "Yeah, but I still don't remember any of these places or these
people," Jein reminded her. "And no offense, but you don't sound
that convinced either. We might have a hard time making our
case."
  "This is what mother and father prepared us for. We can't back
out now...I think." Cathallis tried to hide a gulp. Jein kissed
her on the cheek.
  "This dream's been going pretty good up to now, it'll probably
stay that way," she said as encouragingly as she could.
  Cathallis nodded, but said nothing else as they approached the
gates. As soon as they were a block away, the guards trained
rifles on them. "Freeze!" they yelled, unnecessarily. The sisters
did.
  In two seconds the guards had crossed the distance between
them. "State your names!" ordered one.
  "State your business!" added his partner, whose graying
mustache twitched.
  "Jein, Cathallis, and Jasami Devyre," Jein answered for the
group, and getting a grateful sidelong glance from Cathallis.
  "Never heard THAT one before," the first guard grunted.
  "I dunno, these ones look different from the usual ones," the
second one said slowly. Cathallis peered at him.
  "Enur?"
  "Where'd you hear that name?" he demanded.
  "I think it was all those times mother had you guard us when
Jein and I went to play in the gardens. Remember that time I fell
into the pond, and then Jein jumped in after me? And you had to
pulls us both out?" Cathallis asked.
  The second guard shouldered his weapon thoughtfully. The first
one brandished his at Jein's head. "And I suppose you've got a
cute little story about when you were a kid too, huh?"
  "Nope," Jein shrugged.
  "Nope?" The guard honestly looked surprised at that one for a
second, but quickly recovered. "Oh? And why's that?"
  "They took my memories away. Said I'd be safer that way,
apparently."
  "Or more like you're the only one who couldn't remember her
lines," the guard said, but his partner shoved him. "What?!"
  "Where do you think you are, son?" Enur reproved him. "We're
here to protect the palace, not blow the heads off of anyone and
everyone who walks past."
  "They didn't walk past, they walked up and said they were the
old queen's daughters!"
  "And as a matter of fact, I've been doing this since the old
queen was still alive. And the little one with the dark hair was
always getting into trouble. I do remember having to lift her out
of a pond with a spear once," Enur said.
  "That's not good enough!" the other guard insisted.
  "No," Enur agreed. "It isn't. But that doesn't mean we can't do
to them what we did to the others."
  "What? What did you do the others?" Jein asked, stepping
protectively in front of her sisters.
  "Nothing you won't recover from. Eventually," the first guard
smirked. Enur clouted him on the back of the head.
  "Go call this in," he said gruffly. The other guard walked off.
"I apologize for the way he acted, but you've got to understand
you aren't the first ones claiming to be the old queen's
children. We have to be sure."
  "I guess that makes sense," Cathallis said, her tone neutral.
  The other guard called out and they all looked up at him. "The
captain says to check you three out," he grunted. There was a
hint of a smirk on one side of his mouth that Jein didn't like,
and a lewd gleam in his eyes a little too much like the one she'd
seen in Lucius Handred's.

---------

  "What do you think you're doing?!!" Cathallis screamed.
  Several other guards had appeared to escort them inside, but
now they were in a room with black walls and two of the burly men
were trying and succeeding to wrestle Cathallis's shirt up. Above
her sleek belly the bottom of a lacy black garment was already
visible.
  Jein went up to one of them and grabbed him around the bicep as
well as she could with her small hand. "Knock it the hell off or
I'll break your damn arm."
  "Is that supposed to scare me?" he scoffed.
  "What if I really am the queen's kid? Wouldn't that make me a
Sword Daughter?" Jein retorted. She really wished she'd had the
presence of mind to ask her father to explain that in more
detail, but as she thought back she really didn't feel too bad
about being distracted.
  Still, the guard and his partner stopped stripping Cathallis in
mid-strip and exchanged an uncertain look. The name must've
impressed them enough into not taking the three so lightly, at
least.
  One of them coughed and said to Jein. "Doesn't change the fact
that the scans are pretty thorough..."
  "She can take her own clothes off."
  "Didn't look like it to us," the guard grunted again, but most
of the disdain for Jein's threat was gone. Jein had to admit
Cathallis didn't come across to her as the kind to be okay with
stripping down in front of strangers. Still, she doubted their
intentions had been entirely helpful.
  Jein smacked the guards' hands away from her twin and pulled
Cathallis to her side, but didn't pull Cathallis's shirt back
down. "Just show us where to go, and tell us what we have to do.
If you have to, look. But no touching."
  The guards both grunted and walked away, one fishing a golden
shaft with a faceted cube on the end that he waved at the far
wall, causing a door to slide open. Jein was only barely aware of
it. She was pressing her fingertips against the coolness of her
sister's exposed midriff and slid them down to Cathallis's navel.
The dark-haired twin quivered and gasped almost inaudibly, then
slipped her shirt back down just enough to hide her bra.
  "I was saving that for tonight," Cathallis whispered, sounding
the faintest bit annoyed. Her sister chuckled.
  The guards wheeled in a cylindrical glass capsule and a cart
laden with silvery wands and boxes that Jein guessed were medical
implements. Following them was a man with brownish hair and
glasses perched on the end of his nose. He wore a rumpled
doctor's smock and was so short that for a second Jein figured
him for a dwarf.
  "Another bunch of princesses, eh?" he asked, sounding
distinctly bored. "Well ladies, get disrobed and let's get this
over with."
  Jasami seemed to whip her clothes off in one motion, and was
standing amidst a pile of laundry in pink panties spangled with
yellow flowers, and a plain pink camisole.
  "You're way too good at that," Jein said.
  "You love it," Jasami giggled. She turned and thrust her hips
back at Jein and teasingly slapped the seat of her panties.
  "Take this seriously, will you?" Cathallis grumbled. "We're
here to reclaim our throne."
  Jasami stuck her tongue out at her darker-haired sibling, but
Jein put a hand on her shoulder. "Stop fighting with Cath, okay?"
  "But Jein--"
  "For me?"
  Jasami pouted for a second, then nodded. "For you," she said
and glared over her shoulder. "Not for her."
  "That'll have to do."
  Jasami bristled. "What's that supposed to mean??"
  "Cut it out already!" Cathallis snapped. Immediately everyone
in the room was staring at her for her outburst. "What are you
staying at?! And when do we get a changing screen or something?"
  "No room in the budget," one of the guards said curtly. "The
queen doesn't think enough of this. I don't blame her. We used to
do this ten times a day."
  Jein looked around and saw all the guards and the technician,
their eyes drilling back into her. Or rather, into the
form-fitting outfit Cathallis had helped her pick out before
being transported to Zenith. She'd been naked with plenty of
relative strangers since coming to Akton, but they'd all had the
same...equipment as her. Not to mention it'd been before a
"private session," as it were. Not an entire room of...MEN.
  Her skin seemed to tighten up. That image filled her mind, the
one where she had her old male body again, about to kiss another
man, and she clenched her eyes shut as hard as she could as if
that could help banish the horrific thought.
  "Jein," Cathallis gasped. "What's wrong??"
  "I'm not really liking the idea of these guys drooling over us
either," Jein whispered.
  The dark-haired twin put her arms around Jein's shoulders.
"Mother and father wanted us to take up where they left off. We
can be strong queens. Surely we can do this."
  A long, silent moment passed. Then Jein stepped away from her
sister, and started to roll her shirt up. She could feel the eyes
press even harder against her as she exposed her skin, but pulled
her top off and dropped it on the floor. Cathallis smiled a
little, her cheeks tinged pink now, and rolled up her own shirt
and tossed it over on top of Jein's.
  Jein stared down at Cathallis's proud bosom, barely contained
by the black lace bra she'd already flashed. She yearned to reach
out and touch it, but now wasn't the time. Later. When they
didn't have an audience. Instead she simply shimmied Cathallis's
pants down, lacy black panties cut high on the hips the only
thing protecting her modesty.
  "You look great, Cath," Jein whispered. Her sister smiled
wanly, then yanked Jein's pants down too in one fluid motion.
Jein managed a little smirk at her twin, and could feel the
weight of the eyes melting off her even as she stood there clad
in only the bare minimum. Then she turned to face the technician.
"I guess I'll be the first to step into your little torture
chamber."
  "How crass," the technician said, but his eyes were well below
Jein's own as he did. He waved Jein toward the capsule, keeping
his gaze below hers. A guard pulled on the capsule and a door
swung open, allowing Jein to step inside.
  As soon as the guard closed the capsule up again, a ring of
blue light formed at the bottom of the cylinder and rose upward.
As it passed over her Jein she felt a coolness on her skin, and
was alarmed for a second as she saw the light illuminating her
skeleton.
  "What's going on?!"
  "Hold still, please!" the technician barked. "Any position you
like, but keep still! We've got to have biometrics to compare
against the projections."
  "Sorry."
  "That includes your jaw, young lady."
  Jein shut up and let the light ascend into the top of the
capsule. The door popped open and she stepped out. With slow
steps, Cathallis approached the capsule next. Jein was turning to
watch as her sister was inspected, but the technician rather
roughly fastened a metal cuff with an uncomfortable prong on the
inside around her bicep.
  "Ow."
  "Heh...wait a minute before you say that." The technician
tapped three buttons and the prong jabbed into Jein's arm. She
gasped as it penetrated her skin, and expected to see blood
oozing out from the cuff. It didn't, but the pain intensified.
There was a horrible moment where she felt a drilling sensation
in the center of her arm and then finally the pain stopped.
  "What the hell is that thing??" she gasped, fixing the
technician with a menacing glare.
  "It's a tissue collector. To confirm beyond a shadow of a doubt
we need blood, as well as bone marrow."
  "You're not sticking this damn thing in my sisters!" Jein
snarled. The technician looked completely unimpressed and pushed
the buttons in reverse sequence. The prong retracted from Jein's
arm, there was a warm, sticky sensation on her skin, and then the
cuff popped free. There was a small white blot on her arm from
where the prong had injected itself.
  "Quite harmless, really," the technician said.
  "You are NOT sticking that thing in my sisters," Jein said,
less harshly now. A soft hand cupped her shoulder. It was
Cathallis.
  "Please, Jein. If this is the only way to convince them, let's
just get it over with." Jein nodded, distracted from her defiance
as she let her gaze lower over her twin's sleek curves and flat
plane of a belly. She nodded a little numbly, rubbing at the sore
puncture mark on her arm.

--------

  "Ow," Jasami moaned and rubbed at the white patch on her arm.
She looked up at Jein plaintively, and with an amused little
smile Jein bent down and kissed the puncture. Jasami actually
made an anime happy face.
  "Well then, that should be enough," the technician said. The
guards titled the capsule back on its wheels and followed him out
of the room as he rolled the cart of instruments in front of him.
"We'll be back for you when the analysis is complete. Have fun,
girls." The door closed behind them, with no apparent way of
opening it from the sisters' side.
  "Everybody okay?" Jein asked, and slumped back against a cool
black wall.
  "Yes, I'm--" Cathallis began, but Jasami bounced between the
two of them.
  "No! I need another kiss," she said and held up her arm. Jein
chuckled, but planted another kiss on the white patch.
  "As I was saying," Cathallis interrupted. "I'm fine. I thought
that one test with the metal rod was a little unnecessary,
though. What the hell could they possibly prove with that?"
  "I'm not convinced all that stuff had anything to do with
running medical tests," Jein grumbled.
  "Most of it did," Cathallis replied. "Some of that equipment I
wasn't familiar with."
  "How do you know? Are you a registered nurse or something?"
Jein asked. "Because that'd be pretty hot."
  Cathallis blushed and shook her head. "I spent the years away
studying a lot of different things. Like medical history. A lot
of those things looked familiar." Jein nodded She dimly
remembered her father saying something like that, in among all
the naked breasts and being fucked by a goddess twice in a single
day.
  With their escorts gone, an influence seemed to come over Jein.
She reached out and collected Cathallis's soft breasts in her
hands and gently pressed her fingers into the flesh. Cathallis
purred and stroked at her twin's face, lifting Jein's chin up to
plant a gentle kiss on her lips. Jein chuckled and started to
press back into the kiss. As she did her fingers closed more
tightly around Cathallis's chest.
  Something small, pink and bratty ran into them from the side.
"Hey! What about me!" Jasami looked up at them with an expression
of adorable indignation on her face.
  "She has got a point, Cath," Jein said. "We are supposed to be
a family, we have got to look out for each other."
  Cathallis gave her twin a bemused look, then a smile crept
across her face. "You know Jein, you're absolutely right. Where
would we be if we didn't have each other? Got to keep those bonds
strong."
  "What are you two talking about?" Jasami said, looking up at
them with a confused expression. The next sound out of her mouth
was a squeal of surprise as both of her older sisters grabbed her
by the arms. Cathallis smothered another squeal by pressing kiss
down on their youngest sister, while Jein hoisted up Jasami's
cute pink camisole and grabbed her little sister's right breast.
  A muffled giggle escaped from Jasami's mouth as Jein honked her
young breast again. Her sisters pulled her arms up and then her
undershirt came the rest of the way off to land beside the rest
of their discarded clothes. In a second she was on her back on
the cool black floor as her sisters stroked at her belly and
pulled at her A-cups. She broke the kiss with Cathallis after
another minute and pulled Jein's face down, Jasami bringing hers
up to press her lips against Jein's mouth with a surprising
harshness.
  Jein mmmphed into her little sister's mouth in surprise at the
intensity of the kiss, then gave herself over to it and parted
her lips. Her tongue slipped free and pushed against Jasami's,
which parted eagerly. Their tongues seemed to wrestle between
their mouths for a moment and Jein moaned out.
  It was so song wrong, but she'd made love to three of her
relatives since coming to this bizarre world. Her hands seemed to
move by themselves as one teased down Jasami's side and the other
under the waistband of the youngest sister's panties. She didn't
even realize she'd done it until she felt Jasami's cunt open and
start to seep onto her fingers.
  A minute later Jein found the willpower to pull away from the
kiss. "Just where the hell did you go, that you were learning
this stuff so young?" she asked.
  "I'll make you a bet," Jasami gasped, but managed to grin.
  Cathallis and Jein looked at each other for a second, then down
at their sister. "What bet?" Jein asked.
  "Get me off and I'll tell you." The grin on her face widened.
  "You are going down SO hard," Jein said.
  "Don't bet on it," Jasami retorted. By then her grin was almost
blinding.
  "Here Jein, let me help you with that," Cathallis said and
slipped a hand down Jasami's panties as well. A pair of delicate
fingers pressed together before slipping inside Jasami's young
cunt alongside Jein's own digits.
  "Gotta do better than that," Jasami wheezed feebly.
  "You're crap at faking this," Jein grinned. She pulled her
paired fingers back until they were almost free of Jasami's tight
cunt, then jammed them back in hard. Cathallis withdrew her
fingers, then jammed them back in as Jein had, looking over at
her twin and giving her a conspiratorial smile.
  Jein pulled her youngest sister's panties down around her
ankles, and they set up a slow sequence where one twin would
withdraw her digits, then the other. As hard as she was trying
not to let it show, Jasami bit her lip and her hips contorted
with each new effort of her sisters ramming their fingers up
inside her. She chew her lip and tried hard to hold in heated
moans, but it was no use.
  "Oooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhooooooooooooooooooo..." Jasami exhaled all
the air in her lungs at once.
  "Bet I can make her do one that's twice as long," Cathallis
teased.
  "Oh you can not," Jein replied as she pushed her fingers into
Jasami up to the knuckle again. She grabbed at Jasami's breast
with her other hand and gave it a sharp squeeze.
  The youngest girl's eyes lit up and she stared hard into Jein's
face. It was a strange kind of look; wetness pooled around the
edges of Jasami's eyes and an unmistakable blush decorated her
cheeks. Yet, her mouth was open in a slack sort of smile. "What's
wrong?" Jein asked.
  The expression vanished as Jasami furrowed her brow. "What do
you mean? Nothing's ever been more right."
  "Ever?"
  "Never EVER," Jasami said with a look too serious to belong on
such a young face.
  Without thinking, Jein honked her little sister's breast again.
Jasami squeaked and the blush on her cheeks and vagina darkened,
but that wetness returned to her eyes and her smile returned.
Firmer, and brighter than the last one.
  Then Cathallis slipped her fingers as far as she could into
Jasami's sex again, rubbing against the back of Jein's hand in
the process. She waggled her fingers teasingly and Jasami jerked
and moaned. Then Cathallis pulled her fingers back and looked
over at Jein, who drummed her fingers inside her little sister's
sex too, before pulling back and giving Cathallis the chance to
drum her fingers inside Jasami again.
  Then Jasami yowled and the next thing her sisters knew the
sticky warm wetness of her orgasm was coating their hands. Jasami
looked up at the two of them, panting and skin glistening with
sweat, but smiling.
  "You lose," Jein smiled. "Tell us."
  "Ahem," someone coughed behind them, and they looked up to see
the technician and a pair of guards standing over them. "As
enthralling as the story probably is, your results have come
back."
  "And?" Cathallis asked eagerly.
  "And," he said, then paused, as if it was something he wasn't
sure he believed. "And, it appears you might indeed be the
previous queen's children. Although I find that hard to believe
with what I'm looking at now."
  "Cut the chitchat," Jein said sharply. "Do we get to see the
queen?"
  "Well, yes."
  Jein chased them out of the room and hurriedly made sure
everyone got dressed again. Jasami was still checking her hair in
a compact and brushing her it out as they followed the guards out
of the spartan passages and into halls with ornate columns and
statues of beautiful naked maidens and mythic creatures lined up
in alcoves. More of the first than the second.
  "Lot of statues of girls," Jein observed.
  "The queen appreciates the female form," the technician said,
stolidly fixing his eyes straight ahead.
  "Sounds like we're gonna get along great, then," Jasami
whispered and grinned up at Jein.
  "Shhhh!"
  As they continued the statues became less numerous, while the
flow of servants increased, toting brooms, folders or small
electronic devices projecting an image of a person they talked to
as they scurried about. Up and down stairs and through hallways
honeycombing the building. Also the number of guards increased,
and they became burlier and the rifles resting against their
shoulders became longer and more threatening. There were three of
them on either side of a pair of tall double doors. But rather
than being wood or even gold, they were made of what looked like
stainless steel.
  The guards eyed the sisters', but their escort held up
something Jein couldn't see and with a grunt one of the guards
signaled the others. The doors slid into the walls, and as Jein
walked past them she could see they were a good two feet thick.
  She was surprised by the room they were led into. It certainly
looked like it must've been the throne room, but there were no
rich furnishings anywhere to be seen. The walls were painted a
utilitarian blue with a thin black carpet running up to a plain
black throne comprised of stark, flat contours.
  And seated on the throne was a woman.
  Jein had seen plenty of beautiful women since coming (back) to
Akton, but she stopped dead in her tracks when she saw this one.
She looked to be in her 30's, with auburn calls falling around
her shoulders and framing a heart-shaped face. Her eyes were
brown, nearly amber, and there was a fiery quality to them Jein
had never noticed about a person's eyes before. Her face was
sleek, but looked hard, with no sign of any kind of makeup or
beauty treatment Jein's admittedly untrained eyes could have
detected. The queen reminded Jein of a rendering of Artemis she'd
seen once upon a time.
  Yet for her hard beauty, it was the way she was dressed that
really stuck with Jein. She wore a black leotard of what looked
almost like molded plastic, hugging her impressive round
mammaries. She also wore matching thigh-high boots and elbow
gloves, and a short red cape with ermine trim that hung to the
middle of her hourglass figure. Her brow was decorated a simple
tiara with a single blue stone set in the middle, and she
brandished an equally unadorned scepter at the sisters as they
entered.
  "These are the ones, eh?" she asked in a strong voice.
  "Yes, your highness," answered the technician. "The tests all
conform to the information we still have on Angele Devyre's
children. And as far as we can tell, that's the eldest's natural
hair color."
  "The hell are you talking about?" Jein asked. "I don't know
anything dying my hair."
  The queen fixed Jein with a probing gaze "And why's that?" she
asked.
  "Because I got turned into a boy while I was gone."
  The queen arched a speculative eyebrow. "Did you, now? That's
not a story that's we've heard before. Is it?"
  "No, your highness," the technician affirmed.
  All of a sudden Cathallis stepped forward and threw her arms
wide in supplication. "Mighty Paetra, we applaud you taking up
the throne and holding a steady over the course of the Free
Territories after our parents' untimely deaths. Our mother always
spoke of you as the greatest of her soldiers, and I've no doubt
your mettle was tested and proven many times over the years since
then. The three of us have been away in preparation for our
return home, however. Now that the summons has been issued to us,
we have returned, and we are prepared to reassume our mother's
throne."
  The technician gaped at Cathallis's bold claim, and so did the
guards for a second before they remembered themselves and scowled
and started to unshoulder their weapons. The queen rapped her
scepter on the arm of her throne, and all eyes turned to her.
  She rose to her full height, which was an inch or two above six
feet so she didn't exactly tower over the rest of them, but the
way the guards slunk back as she approached left no doubt that
was in charge of the room. She looked down at the sisters, and
said three words.
  "Not a chance."
  "W...wha...what?" Cathallis said in shock.
  The queen spoke with measured words, calm but firm, as she
responded. "Angele Devyre was the best thing that could've ever
happened to the countries around here, don't mistake me. But I'm
the one who kept it from all falling apart when she died. I'm the
one who's fought to keep our borders secure and keep taking back
territory. We have enemies on every side eager to start subsuming
us again, and there's no way I'm going to just hand over control
of the Free Territories to a couple of little girls. No matter
who their parents are." Then she faced one of the guards and said
simply, "Show in the generals, we've got a lot to do, and not
much time to do it."
  "Well then...I'm sorry we wasted your time," Jein spoke up, not
sure what else to say and trying to take the load off her
still-dumbstruck twin. The queen had already turned her back, and
the guards were urging the sisters back toward the entrance.
They'd scarcely cleared it when the enormous doors rolled back
into place to protect the throne room.
  The escorted trip out of the palace seemed to take forever.
None of them said anything. What was there to say? After
preparing for this for years without even realizing it, they came
home, risked danger from orcs and the undead, only to be turned
away at the site of their goal. Somewhere along the way the
technician vanished. It was only when blinding daylight hit their
eyes that the sisters fully realized they were out on the street
again.
  "You heard the queen," a guard grunted. "Get out and don't come
back."
  "That's not what she said," Jein retorted wearily, and slipped
an arm around each of her sisters' shoulders and led them away
without waiting for a no doubt glib reply.
  "Now what do we do?" Jasami asked gloomily. Her pigtails seemed
to sag lower on the back of her head.
  "I have no idea," Jein sighed. "Cath, any ideas?"
  The dark-haired twin looked up, and managed a weary smile.
"Yes."

---------

  The taxi zoomed off down the street after the sisters had
debarked. Jasami wiped her palms together a few more times and
then shoved them into her pockets. She looked up to disbelieving
looks from her sisters.
  "What??"
  "You didn't have to do that, you know," Jein sighed.
  "I was getting out of practice."
  With a sigh and a shake of her head Jein looked away. "So where
exactly are we?"
  "The family estate," Cathallis replied, pointing.
  "The WHAT?" Jein replied, but followed her twin's finger to a
mansion up a hill from them with a little tree-lined drive and
black wrought-iron fence. "Is there some reason we didn't go here
first?"
  Cathallis looked at Jein, down at Jasami, and back at Jein.
"I...I thought they might run some tests on us. Embarrassing
tests. And they did. And I wanted to get it over with. Besides,
if it'd worked--"
  "Okay, okay. Sorry I asked. You think we'll have any better
luck here? I mean, if people were trying to trick the queen into
thinking they were us, they'd probably come here too, right?"
  "It's the only fallback I've got," Cathallis said dejectedly.
  "All right, cheer up," Jein said, and did indeed raise her
twin's chin up for their eyes to meet. Cathallis looked away,
then looked back and managed a small smile. "But you have to do
the talking. I don't know who to ask for."
  At the gate Cathallis pressed a brass doorbell off to one side
that made no sound. However, a black boxy thing that looked like
a security camera mounted above swung toward the three of them.
After a minute a small screen above the doorbell flickered to
life, showing an image of an unremarkable middle-aged man.
  "Yes?" he asked in a bored tone.
  "We're here to see Namiel Devyre," Cathallis answered him.
  "She's busy."
  "We're her nieces," Cathallis pressed.
  "You're the 7024th girl to tell us that," he said, getting more
bored with every bit of the exchange.
  "Who is it?" a female voice demanded from the man's side of the
intercom.
  "Just another bunch of imposters looking for a handout, madam,"
the man replied, looking off to his left. "I'll get rid of them,
don't concern yourself."
  "Go back to cleaning up the fallen branches in the yard," the
female voice said sharply, and the man's expression was taken
aback. He stood up and backed away, and a minute later a woman
appeared in the screen next to the gate.
  She had a careworn face, framed by glistening black hair. There
was a cautious kind of smile on it as she looked at the sight of
them on her screen. "Cathallis?" she asked.
  "Hello, aunt Namiel."
  "Is Jein with you??"
  "Yeah, that'd be me," Jein said and stepped forward. "Sorry I'm
not more excited, I don't really remember anything about...home.
Boy is that starting to sound lame."
  Namiel canted her head. "What's that on your neck?"
  "Oh, this?" Jein leaned forward to show the purple mark on her
neck. Exactly where her father had kissed her before sending her
home.
  Namiel gasped. "It's true...come in, come in!"
  Something buzzed and the gates parted. They hadn't gotten
halfway up the path to the entrance before the doors flew open
and Namiel appeared, holding up her skirts as she ran out to meet
them. She stopped when she was a few feet away, and took in the
sight of the three girls standing before her without words for a
few more moments. Then she reached out and threw her arms around
the three of them. Jein gasped and felt awkwardly unaffected by
this meeting.
  "Uh, hi aunt Namiel?" she said. Rather limply, she thought.
  "Come in, girls! We'll get you some tea and you can tell me all
about how you came to be here."

------

  The tea had a strange apple-like taste to it, but then Jein
couldn't really call herself an expert when it came to teas. She
glanced over at her sisters, with Jasami's eyelids starting to
sag while Cathallis surprisingly openly relating to their aunt
what had happened to them since their return to Akton.
  "That's quite a story, but tell me, girls," Namiel prompted as
she set down her own teacup. "Where've you been? What have you
been doing while you were away?"
  "You first," Jein said as she patted Cathallis on the back.
  "Well, erm, we were sent to other worlds, to prepare us to run
the kingdom when we got back. I was sent to one that had a giant
tree whose roots were connected to every planet in the galaxy
thanks to magical channels. There I was able to learn about the
people and cultures of every civilization there's ever been.
After my knowledge was tested, I was sent home. About the same
time Jein passed her test."
  "Who tested you?" Jein asked.
  "Why, the dryads who tend the tree, of course."
  "Of course."
  "Of course," Cathallis affirmed. "Patient, wise, immortal. They
seem natural keepers of knowledge to me."
  Namiel smiled. "And what was your test, Jein?"
  "I don't want to talk about it."
  Namiel cocked her head in confusion. "Why not?"
  "Because my test was stupid."
  "Oh, I'm sure that's not true," Namiel said supportively.
  "I won a game," Jein replied. "Doesn't really seem like
something that prepares you to be this big warrior."
  Namiel put her hand over Jein's and smiled. "I was never much a
part of your parents' battling, but I know Angele said a warrior
can find lessons almost anywhere."
  A thoughtful expression settled on Jein's face. "This is where
our family lived?"
  "This is the estate I was given when Paetra Laqure took over
the throne," Namiel corrected her niece. "We have most of our
family heirlooms, though. The ones that survived the dragon
attack, at least."
  "Got any pictures of our parents around?"
  "Of course. Finish your tea and I'll show you," Namiel
answered. Noisily, Jein slurped hers down in a second and set her
cup down. Everyone else looked up at her.
  "Oh, uh...sorry."
  "You'll have to excuse her," Cathallis hastily said. "Jein's
coming home for the first time, you might say. She's a little
eager to reacquaint herself."
  A sympathetic look crossed Namiel's face. "Oh my, I had no
idea. Of course, of course. Why don't you girls finish up, and
I'll show Jein the family portrait."
  "Thanks," Jein said with a soft smile as her aunt took her out
of the parlor and through a pair of halls and chambers before
arriving at a posh bedroom. Against one wall was a large
four-poster bed, and opposite it a dresser made of some kind of
dark wood with a mirror that took up half the wall. The room's
most outstanding fixture, though, was a large painting hanging on
the wall across from the door.
  It was set in a garden, with a hedge in the background and
artfully-arranged beds of colorful flowers on the peripheries of
the picture. Standing in the garden was a happy-looking family,
all of them clad in regal finery. In the back were a man and a
woman, the man broad-shouldered and with short silver hair. He
had a simple smile on his face, and an arm was wrapped around the
waist of a woman in a blue dress, who Jein could see at once was
a younger Namiel. Her smile was directed downward at a little
boy, maybe four or five years old. His hair matched hers, but his
eyes were a dark purple. He smiled forward as well, looking a bit
uncomfortable.
  Next to that family was another couple, the man, tall and
broad-shouldered with dark hair that hung to nearly his waist.
His face was rugged but the smile directed primarily at the woman
at his side was warm and loving.
  The woman, despite the flowing white gown that covered her
figure, had a bearing of strength. Her clothing was the same
color as the braid hanging past one shoulder, and her limpid
yellow eyes, her smooth yet strong features reminded Jein of a
face that was becoming more and more familiar.
  Her eyes shifted back to the man, and immediately Jein couldn't
see him in the picture anymore. It was the bare figure of Amoril
there instead, pink locks picked up by a convenient breeze as she
smiled over at the woman she'd chosen.
  There were another pair of people in the portrait at the feet
of the second couple, about the same age as the little boy. They
wore matching white dresses, miniature versions of the woman's
behind them, and looked a lot like miniature versions of her. The
sleek facial features, the yellow eyes. They were nearly
indistinguishable, like matched dolls, except one was
white-haired and the other black.
  "Dad looks...different than I kind of expected," Jein said,
distantly.
  "And yet your mother must look very familiar," Namiel replied
with a patient smile.
  "Kind of. I mean, I haven't even been here a week and I've met
elves, orcs, dwarves, vampires, and even more things I can't even
name since I got to Zenith. We don't have anything like that
where I grew up. Not real ones, anyway."
  "It must be quite a change for you," Namiel said.
  "Yeah, you can say that," Jein sighed. "I find out I'm a girl,
I find out I'm supposed to be some kind of warrior...I'm almost a
little glad the queen told us no. I ain't ready to be a queen."
  "Even your mother wasn't born a legendary warrior. She had to
learn to be a soldier and a queen, like anyone else."
  "Yeah, well...hey, why did you say `it's true' when we showed
up outside your house?"
  "I had a dream that the there of you would be returning today.
Your mother revered Amoril, you know."
  "Oh yeah, I know," Jein mumbled.
  "So when I saw the goddess telling me you'd be coming back, I
was tempted to believe it. That mark on your neck, that must mean
you've been touched by the goddess."
  "What do you mean...`touched'?"
  Namiel regarded her with bemusement. "Why, only that the
goddess has granted you her favor. What else would I mean?"
  "Uh...nothing! Never mind. Stupid question," Jein said, her
eyes darting around the room, looking for anything else to talk
about. "Uh, who's that??" she asked.
  Her aunt followed her finger to the little boy in the painting.
"Oh, that's my son Adren! He'll be at work a little while still.
I swear, some traits really must be genetic..."
  "What do you mean?"
  "Oh, he's an engineer. Works helping to redesign things for the
army. Vehicles and weapons, that kind of thing. Raise the
efficiency but lower the cost to make them."
  "Oh yeah?"
  "That's how he explained it," Namiel answered. "Very eager to
help the country, he was."
  "I heard it needs all the help it can get," said Jein.
  A sigh passed Namiel's lips. "That's what I hear too."
  "Well...would I be out of line if I asked about maybe borrowing
some money to take some boxing lessons or something?"
  With a strange smile, Namiel replied, "I think we can do better
than that."

-------

  She didn't say a word  as they returned to the parlor where
Jasami and Cathallis waited, only producing a small bell from
inside a small table next to her chair and ringing it gently.
  "How...how was it?" Cathallis asked after a second.
  The couch made no sound at all as Jein sat down it more heavily
than she'd meant. She met nobody's eyes as she said, "You know,
it's starting to make a weird kind of sense, really."
  "Really?"
  "Uh huh," Jein nodded. "Like why I never really felt at home on
Earth, and why I always got really angry for no reason around the
same time every single month."
  "Oh, my," Cathallis let out a gasp that turned into a giggle.
  All of a sudden, a dark shape jumped down from above and landed
at Namiel's side. It was a man, clad from head to toe in black
and clutching a long, gleaming knife in one hand. Cathallis
screamed and almost fell over the couch she was sitting on in
terror, and Jein hurriedly interposed herself between her sisters
and the man. She noticed this left him next to her aunt, but then
she wondered what chance she really stood against someone who
could sneak inside this place.
  Guided by instinct, she went into what she remembered of a
defensive stance from the couple of months she'd taken judo years
ago. Her mind was whirling with questions even as she regarded
the intruder, and the blade in his hand. Who was this guy? Who'd
he come to kill? Was it her aunt, or her? She'd been sent to
another planet and stripped of her memories to keep her safe, she
seemed the more likely target. Which of her parents' enemies had
sent him? How had they found out she was back so quickly?
  And then, Namiel chuckled. "Knock it off, you're scaring my
nieces."
  "Excuse me?" Jein asked, her questions mutating into a mass of
annoyance. The man slid his knife through his belt and rose out
of his stance.
  "You rang me," he said to Namiel. "You know I never show myself
unless you're threatened. I only entered like I always do."
  "This guy's your bodyguard?" Jein asked, her annoyance
swelling.
  "Calm down, Jein," Namiel said, through another chuckle.
  "This guy had a knife on my sisters! I don't see what's so damn
funny. That doesn't look like a toy to me!"
  Namiel shook her head. "Do you think I'd hire someone to
protect my life I didn't trust implicitly? Like, trusting them
not to slip with a knife?"
  "I guess not..."
  "Anyway, Takel, say hell to my nieces. Jein, Cathallis, and
Jasami."
  "I know," he said simply.
  "Girls, this is Takel Nesmit, my personal bodyguard. Takel,
Jein was hoping to learn a thing or two about hand-to-hand
combat. Maybe you could help her get started."
  He grunted. "I can't leave you unguarded."
  "That's fine, I'll come watch," she said with a smile. Takel
nodded. He pulled off the cloth hood covering his face, revealing
a man with hard cheeks, a lantern jaw and wiry red hair. To Jein,
he looked just like the stereotypical soldier of fortune from a
million action movies she suddenly felt a little self-conscious
for having watched.
  "What do you say, Jein?" Namiel offered. Takel stepped closer
to her as if to give her an idea of just what she'd be getting
into if she accepted. He stood nearly two feet taller than her,
and had arms so thick it looked as if he could snap a steel
girder with his elbows.
  "Sure, why not? It's not as if he'll break me in half too bad,
right?"

------------

   After a quick trip to another room to borrow a pair of shorts
and a sports bra from Cathallis's wardrobe--Jein was a little
torn between finding someplace to get her own clothes, and
pursuing her plan to force Cathallis to work her way through
their shared wardrobe to the naughtier stuff--she found out just
how serious her aunt was about fitness.
  The basement room they entered wasn't like a private health
club, but it was large and well-supplied nonetheless. There were
a pair of exercise bikes, a treadmill, a leg-press, several
weight machines as well as rack of free weights, and still enough
room to lay out a pair of large athletic mats side by side.
Namiel was sitting on a bench, watching one of the TV's hanging
from the ceiling. Takel was sitting on the floor in a meditative
stance, but stood up as Jein entered.
  He gave her an appraising looking, taking in the sight of her
long legs, bared midriff and arms, and white hair she'd thought
to have Cathallis help her tie up into a ponytail before coming.
If Takel had any thoughts about her based on his examination, he
didn't voice them. Without moving at all, he said, "Come at me."
  "Go easy on her," Namiel warned.
  "Would someone intending to kill her worry about going easy?"
he said back.
  "No, but the person who signs your paycheck does."
  Takel was probably about to reply, but just then Jein's foot
impacted on his stomach. Just as she registered connecting with
him, though, he grabbed her by the shin and flipped her to the
floor. The landing knocked all the air from her lungs.
  "Get up," he grunted. It took Jein a minute, but she did. "Come
at me again," he told her. She didn't, though. She circled slowly
to the side, but Takel didn't turn to keep her in his eyesight.
She kept going until she was directly behind him and ran over to
kick at him, but he turned her and slapped her aside.
  She staggered away, holding her stinging cheek, but Takel
relentlessly charged and kicked her legs out from under her.
Again, Jein went down. Then Takel lunged at his fallen opponent
with his elbow. Jein gasped as it slammed down half an inch from
her face.
  "You sounded a little less winded when you hit the ground that
time," he said. Jein said nothing. He got to his knees extended
his hand as it to help her up, but she laid there panting for
another second. Then suddenly she let out a sharp exhale and
aimed a swift kick at a spot under his arm that looked especially
vulnerable. He fell flat before it connected and quickly rolled
over to pin Jein's legs and wrists to the mat.
  "You've got to be faster than that, little girl."

--------

  The thumping and yelling went on for another ten minutes. After
the sounds of conflict had stopped, Cathallis ventured down into
the gym. Aunt Namiel passed her silently on the way up, giving
her an apologetic look, but there was no sign of Takel. Cathallis
hurried on, coming down to Jein lying on the mat, her skin
glistening with sweat and sporting several darkening bruises.
  "How'd it go...?" Cathallis asked nervously.
  "Well," Jein moaned. "He said I was smart not to accept help
from an enemy..."
  "Oh dear."
  "Maybe I'll even remember the couple moves he showed me. If I
ever move again."
  Draping her twin's arm over her shoulder, Cathallis helped lift
Jein to her feet. "Come on."
  "Where are we going?"
  "There's a hot tub out behind the house."
  "Mrrrrmmmhrrrrhhhrmm," Jein replied. "That sounds nice..."
  Slowly, achingly, they climbed up a back stairway into the
mansion's backyard. There was a stone deck bordering the house,
and off to their left was a wide swimming pool. Cathallis ignored
it in favor of a stone-built above ground hot tub, where she sat
Jein down on the rim. She took her sister's bra off, and Jein's
breasts bobbed and swayed, and for a second the rest of
Cathallis's world vanished.
  "I can take my own clothes off, you know," Jein murmured. "He
didn't knock me around that bad." She started to hook her fingers
into the waist of her shorts, but Cathallis grabbed her by the
wrists.
  "No."
  "Okay," Jein acquiesced.
  Jein awkwardly shifted her hips to help Cathallis roll her
shorts off next, and was about to turn and sink into the water
when Cathallis yanked her own blouse up and dropped it on the
ground. Underneath she had on a dark purple bra with lace trim,
hugging her ample breasts rather scandalously. She'd put on a new
racy undergarment after her first one had been exposed
prematurely. Jein couldn't help but smile.
  Slowly, far too slowly, Cathallis slipped it down, baring inch
after inch of her breasts. After an eternity the undergarment
fell away and Cathallis thrust her chest forward to rub against
her sister's with a soft giggle.
  "Feeling any better?"
  "Are we gonna hot tub, or are we just gonna talk all day?" Jein
asked, managing to pinch the side of one of her sister's breasts.
"Get naked and let's get in, Cath."
  The dark-haired twin made a melodramatic sigh. "No foreplay
today? I swear, when we met you were all passion..." Then with a
wink she turned around, bent over and yanked down her skirt and
panties. With a grin Cathallis shook her heart-shaped ass in her
sister's direction, and Jein gave it an anemic swat. Cathallis
stood up and gave her sister a worried look. "Jein...what the
hell did he do to you??"
  "Mostly told me to hit him then knocked me down. After a while
he decided if he did it again he'd get fired, probably."
  With a nervous shake of her head, Cathallis leaned in and
kissed Jein hard on the mouth. Jein slipped an arm around
Cathallis's back, then scooted back and turned toward the water,
Cathallis awkwardly hoisting herself up monto the edge of the tub
and trying not to break the kiss at the same time. The two slowly
slid into the water, and Cathallis leaned over to start the jets.
  Finally Jein broke the kiss and leaned back, sighing with
relief at the churning warm waters relieving her many new bumps
and bruises. She raised her arms to wrap them around Cathallis's
waist and pulled her into another kiss, but resisted the urge to
think of it as "steamy."
  "Thanks for dragging me up here, Cath," Jein smiled, and smiled
more to see her sister squirm in her lap at the mention of that
nickname. "You've been...really eager to get naked with me,
though."
  Cathallis froze. "Are you not comfortable with this?"
  "Oh, no! No! That's not what I meant!" Jein hastened to assure
her. "It's...I just mean...sisters being girlfriends isn't really
normal here, is it?"
  A blush colored Cathallis's cheeks, but she wrapped her arms
around Jein's neck and leaned forward hard to rub their ample
chests together. "Not really, but...we aren't exactly normal, are
we? I was mostly raised by tree-people, you grew up thinking you
were a boy."
  "Mostly raised by tree-people?"
  "Uh huh. There were human villages nearby, and I spent a lot of
time there too. So I wouldn't grow distant from humankind, since
I was supposed to be governing them someday. At least, that was
the plan."
  "Yeah," Jein sighed. "That sucks."
  "Well, at least you're still getting ready to do something with
our circumstances," Cathallis reassured her. "That's why you let
him knock you around like that, isn't it?"
  "I wasn't trying to get knocked around, I was trying to pick up
something about how to fight. I got lucky before with the
vampire, to have him be a clichéd moron. But like I said, thanks
for dragging me up here. I'm feeling a lot better already."
  Cathallis smiled and pulled Jein away from the wall to wrap her
legs around Jein's waist. "I'm just trying to help you get used
to everything again. It must be rough, finding out your life
isn't true and coming home an orphan."
  Uncomfortably, Jein rubbed at the purple kiss mark on her neck
without meaning to. She'd thought about explaining the origin of
it with her sisters, but wasn't sure if she was supposed to, or
if they'd believe her anyway. That their father was actually a
goddess taken human form seemed a wild story even for here.
  But, Cathallis was certainly more open-minded than most. She
was also so beautiful, so serene, yet so passionate...Jein did
have some unconscious urge to see to her protection. And how
could she hold back the truth of their parentage, from someone
she felt that close to?
  "Yeah, Cath? About that..."
  Cathallis canted her head. "What is it?"
  "Um, you're gonna think I'm crazy for saying this, but this
mark? I didn't have that before the elves sent us to Zenith. When
we were on the way here, I got pulled up to the home of the
gods."
  Cathallis raised her eyebrows dubiously but said nothing.
  "And I met Amoril. The goddess, right? She said she was
actually our dad, and married mom to start something off to do
something about a bunch of, what was the word she said...power
mongers, I think. To make the world a more funtastic place
because it was getting too dark for her interests."
  A thoughtful look descended over Cathallis's face, and probably
without realizing it she leaned in and mooshed her breasts to
Jein's a little harder. "That's a strange story, but that IS
Amoril's sign. And it doesn't wash off or anything, right?" She
cupped her hands as she dipped them into the water, then splashed
it on Jein's neck. The mark was unaffected. Cathallis scratched
at it lightly with a fingernail, and still the mark was
unaffected.
  Which wasn't to say its owner was. "Hey, cut it out!" Jein
leaned away from her sister's finger.
  "Sorry," Cathallis blushed a little. "But I believe you. It
makes a certain kind of sense. No one ever really knew where
father came from, not even mother."
  Jein sighed, then slipped her arms down Cathallis's back to
settle her hands on her twin's ass cheeks. "Can we talk about all
this later?"
  A cheeky grin flashed across Cathallis's face. "You're right, I
should be tending to your wounds like a good sister."
  Cathallis sank down so that her crotch was pushed up against
Jein's, and gyrated her hips gently forward. Jein sighed happily
as a sensation of peace descended over her. Some debauched
instinct took over and she mashed her lips against Cathallis's,
and by then nothing felt wrong about it at all. Here was someone
who was honestly proud of her for making the effort to get
smacked around until she could hardly move, and was determined to
help her recover. What was wrong with showing her gratitude for
that kind of faith in her...?
  So she did. She teasingly swiped a fingertip down the crevice
of Cathallis's backside, and the dark-haired twin squealed in
surprise right into her mouth, and in squirming forward only
deepened the kiss. Jein's tongue played across Cathallis's lips,
but she didn't try deepen it even further, yet. Cathallis giggled
at having her lips licked, and started to grind her groin up
against Jein's navel.
  Jein was thinking of what to do next when out of the corner of
her eye she saw a gate along the fence open and someone enter the
yard. He spotted the two of them in the hot tub at the same
moment and met their combined gazes.
  He was a boy roughly their age, with sharp eyes and a practical
cut to his ebony black hair. His face was thin, rather like his
build. He wasn't exactly a scarecrow, but he didn't look like
someone serious about his exercise, either. He wore a practical
outfit with a button-up shirt and slacks, and had a pair of
glasses on his forehead. His jaw hung down as his eyes went from
the girls embracing in the hot tub, to the pile of abandoned
clothes beside it.
  "Oh wait, you must be cousin Adren!" Jein realized.
  Cathallis gasped sank into the water up to her nose. He took a
step or two closer, but stopped at a respectful distance. Perhaps
"cautious" was more appropriate. " `Cousin' Adren?" he asked.
"Who does that make you?"
  "Oh, I'm Jein, and this is...actually, I don't think she's
ready."
  Adren continued to stare. "Um, could you please go inside? Ask
your mom, she knows we're here."
  "She'd better," Adren murmured and hurried inside.
  "Come on, we better get out of here before anybody else shows
up," Jein advised her sister. "Not ready for an audience yet, huh
Cath?"
  Cathallis splashed her in the face.

--------

  After hurriedly drying off and dressing behind the tub, they
reentered the mansion through the door Adren had taken. He was
sitting in a small parlor at a round wooden table, sipping coffee
with a slightly quivering hand. Standing in the doorway behind
him was Namiel.
  "So that's why you were asking about the hot tub...," she said
quietly, with a look in Cathallis's direction. Was there a
slightly playful glint in her eyes as she said it, though?
  Adren set down his mug and hastily let it go before the
clattering of its base against the table could become irritating.
"I...I apologize for before," he said. "I didn't recognize you.
It's been...a very long time, and we hardly ever saw each other
as children."
  "Yeah, I'd imagine we're a little different than we were back
then," Jein said jas she felt Adren's eyes on the front of her
clinging borrowed sports bra. Namiel cuffed him lightly on the
back of his head.
  "Don't stare. You were raised better than that."
  "Uh, maybe we should hold off on this till after I get
dressed," Jein suggested. She didn't raise an arm to cover her
chest or anything, though. Namiel nodded and cleared her throat
loudly. A thin girl whose ears were hidden by a mop of blond
curls scurried into the parlor.
  "Show the girls to their room," Namiel said, and the girl
nodded. With a polite curtsy she scurried out of the room again.
The twins followed her upstairs and into a sumptuous bed chamber
with a pair of beds facing a pair of wooden dressers on either
side of a door leading out onto a small balcony. With another
curtsy the girl shut the door behind her. Cathallis locked it.
  Jein sat down on the bed closer to the hall and looked around
to assure herself of something. "There's only two beds."
  "Uh huh," Cathallis said obliviously.
  "Where's Jasami gonna stay?"
  "Oh, she's got a little room all to herself upstairs. Aunt
Namiel was going to give us each our own room, but while you were
getting changed I might have implied that waking up to a familiar
face might help you adjust to being back home."
  "You're not planning on that other bed seeing much use, are
you?" Jein asked. Cathallis gaped at her.
  "Jein! How could you even suggest such a lewd thing of me?!"
  By way of response, Jein rolled her top up to let her breasts
sway free in her sister's direction. Cathallis giggled, bent down
and kissed a nipple. "So how DOES that mattress feel?"
  Jein bounced her ass on it a few times, satisfied by the soft,
supportive feel of the mattress. She was aware of the sensation
of her breasts jiggling as she tested out the shape of her bad,
but it wasn't until she looked up and saw Cathallis staring at
her chest that she really NOTICED. Her sister was staring so hard
at her chest it occurred to Jein blue and green swirls in her
eyes wouldn't be out of place.
  "It's, uh...good? Don't think it'd bother my back if some cute
girl with black hair was grinding me down into it with her
crotch?"
  Cathallis beamed. "We'll just have to find out, won't we?" She
climbed onto Jein's bed and started to kiss along her sister's
naked arm and up her neck. Jein snickered and was turning to give
her a kiss in return when a polite knock came at the door. "Who
is it?" Cathallis called.
  "Pardon me," a girl's voice replied. "I forgot that the
mistress asked me to leave this for you." Cathallis walked over,
unlocked the door and collected something from the servant girl
before shutting and locking the door again.
  "What is it?" Jein asked. Cathallis looked down at it for a
second with colored cheeks before handing it over.
  "I think it's for you," she said.
  It was a book with a red and black cover. The title read
"Erotic Adventuring For Beginners."
  "Oh god," Jein gasped, not sure whether to be flattered or
taken aback.
  "Look down," Cathallis said.
  Jein did. Underneath the title were the words "By Angele
Devyre."
  "Oh god," Jein said again, cheeks coloring. "Dad wasn't kidding
about those tricks..."
