The day following the first date Cloudy had gone on with Rosewater was a special time for Rosemary, filled with Cloudy asking her about her mother, asking her about what Rosewater liked, asking for help in the future with planning dates, and promising to keep her in the loop.

Seeing anypony interested in her mother was a delight and even if it was her own lover, it was a sign that things were finally changing after six years of stagnation and secretive attempted romances that always fell apart as soon as Rosewater tried to go public with her interest.

Even Collar paid more attention to the little conversations she shared with Cloudy, and while he didn’t express an interest, that tiny spark of curiosity about her was more than enough to be considered an enticement. All that would need to happen…

The smell of sex was still strong on them when they came back, and a faint glow as she took in his musky masculine scent was all she needed to do to make him flush. He didn’t back away, though, didn’t back down from the look she gave him that time.

Maybe he would bend his mores enough to let her in. Maybe he would even bend enough to let Rosewater in.

All that would need to happen was for things to go swimmingly.

Rosemary blew a breath out her nose, fogging the window and briefly obscuring the late evening view of the ponies going about the last patterns and duties of the day. Three pegasi that she was pretty sure were Primfeathers landed at the same time they usually did, always outside the perimeter of the palace courtyard that was so carefully guarded and patrolled, and stared in her direction.

They’d been doing it for two days now, landing, standing and talking amongst themselves, and then taking off again towards Merrie, but their silhouettes always broke away before they reached anywhere close to the river.

Whatever they thought they were doing, it wasn’t as intimidating as they thought it was.

As if she had any control over what prison cell she stayed in.

They couldn’t know about Poppy and Glory, either. They were always careful, and Glory was too good at staying hidden to be caught when she arrived.

Their show of pointless bravado done, it was time to see who would be keeping her company for the evening. If it was Coat, she had a book of Prim philosophical arguments she’d been working through on the nature of love that she was hoping he’d be willing to argue against.

For Sunrise, if she was part of her retinue, she had a rather staid story of romance from the Prim Palace library she’d been working through that she thought the mare might enjoy reading together. It was also between mares, a noblemare and a common-born ship-pegasus.

Quiet they might be about sex, but romance was a part of the life of Damme, and there were so many commonalities between Merrie and Damme that neither city had been allowed to see until recently. If she could…

She sighed and put the book aside. Sunrise was still skittish around her. She’d clearly recognized her when first introduced, and Rosemary had immediately known the mare even years later.

Sunrise had only gotten more beautiful with time, the faint pudge of a lifestyle of being a sedentary noble burned away by the rigors of being a Dammeguard on active patrols, and beneath the skittish outer facade burned the memory of their one night together.

“Have a good night, Rosemary,” her current guard, Poppy, said through the door, as a new scent, a mare’s scent and familiar to her, grew stronger as hooves plodded on the carpeting outside.

It was combined with freshly washed, and a faintly scented aroma, pleasant and gentle.

Rosemary’s heart caught in her throat. “Good evening, Sergeant Platinum.”

Silence punctuated by Poppy’s retreating gait hung heavy in the room, a hum of tension that seemed to permeate the room until the handle turned and the door creaked open. Her door being unguarded wasn’t that uncommon anymore. Most of her guards spent at least a few minutes inside talking with her under silence.

This, she wasn’t prepared for.

“Can we talk?” Platinum asked, not coming in, and not closing the door, only standing so that she didn’t need to talk louder than she had to.

“I-I…” The apology stalled in Rosemary’s throat. She swallowed. “O-of course.”

Silence again, the faint scuffing of a hoof against the floor.

Rosemary inched closer, laying down on the floor a few inches from the door to keep the quiet. “What do you want to talk about?”

“You know.” Platinum’s voice was stiff, uncertain. “When… you were engaging with us? Was that real?”

“Yes,” Rosemary said immediately. “Stars, yes. If I could have, I would have done nothing else.” She licked her lips, wanting to say more, but uncertain what Platinum was thinking. It was one of the rules of apologies. Don’t over-apologize. Don’t push. Don’t rationalize more than necessary. Wait.

“Why…” Platinum cleared her throat. “Why did you risk it?”

“You can come in, Plat,” Rosemary said softly. “My other guards spend some time here. I make sure that I silence the room so we can talk privately.”

“I… I need to know why, ‘Mary,” Platinum said, not moving. “I need to know why you took the risk, why you tried to befriend me after the way I treated you the first time.”

Guilt? Rosemary shook her head, dismissing it. “You didn’t seem to be angry at me so much as my family. And I don’t like ponies to think of me as ‘one of those Rosethorns.’”

Platinum snorted, the smile audible. “I never thought of you as‘one of those Rosethorns.’” A hoof tapped on the floor. “I was curious from the start, but… you are a Rosethorn.”

Rosemary blew out a breath. “I am. I’m not ashamed of my heritage. My heritage is the same as yours. I’m not…” She almost said ‘Roseate’s daughter,’ and cast her mother into that group. And her cousins. Glory… Glory the secret almost-aunt. “It’s complicated.”

“Can you try to explain it to me? I need… Rosemary, I… I need to know if you were toying with me.”

“Never.” Rosemary inched the door open a little more with a spell. “Come in, Platinum. I promise I’m not going to try anything.”

That familiar gray coat and blue eyes came around the edge of the door, her silver mane still faintly damp from her bath. She eyed Rosemary laying on the floor and raised a brow, then shook her head silently and slipped in, closing the door behind her.

“You look like a sad puppy,” Platinum said with a faint smile.

“I am a sad puppy,” Rosemary said with a wink as she focused on her magic and the now-familiar receptacles of power in the corners of the room. The faint sound of wind outside and the distant sounds of the palace winding down for the evening faded away, then vanished. “I worried what you would think. I knew…” She shook her head.

“When you said you were changing to daytime again,” Platinum said, looking away from her to study her room. “When you said that, I was sad because… I liked you.”

“Liked?”

“I don’t know if I do.” Platinum’s ears flattened against her mane. “It hurt when I heard you’d broken the law. I wasn’t sure if I shouldn’t have arrested you on the spot when you showed up that first night.”

Rosemary kept in what she wanted to say, a self-defeating statement that she should have. “I like you, Platinum. Really. You’re fun to talk to, and… you’re open-minded. I’m sorry for what I tried to do, and if I could, I’d not do it. I’d have sought asylum instead.”

I would have told Rosewater first, but I would have run. But Rosie… Velvet. Trestle. They wouldn’t have understood. Either way, she wouldn’t be there to see their foal be born like she’d promised.

Platinum was still watching her, blue eyes sharp, considering, before she relaxed minutely. “Apology accepted. This… war does things to ponies. I think, maybe… we could try to be friends? Start over?”

“Yes to the first, no to the second. Stars, Platinum, I don’t want to pretend that all that teasing and flirting I threw your way was for nothing.” Rosemary smiled as brightly as she could, pushing back the lingering pangs of everything she’d left behind in Merrie. “But… it does seem like I’m going to be here for a while.”

The smile that earned her was more than worth the anxiety, the days worrying about the friends she’d made in Damme and betraying their trust.

“You were flirting a lot,” Platinum said, her voice low as she glanced at the nearest corner. “Was… there anything to it?”

“Of course. I, and most Merriers, don’t flirt if we don’t see something that interests us.” Rosemary raised her hoof again, but didn’t right herself just yet. “But flirting is just our way of saying, ‘I’d like to get to know you better.’”

A pause, a cock of the head, and a small smile was all that warned her, “Well… in that case, what’s a pretty mare like you doing on the floor like that?”

She couldn’t help it. Rosemary burst out laughing as Platinum’s cheeks blazed red, her indignant look only fueling the merriment and driving Rosemary into further spasms whenever she tried to regain control.

It wasn’t long before Platinum was laughing along with her.

“I raise two petals.”

Collar glanced up at his card-playing partner for the afternoon. “You sure about that, Rosemary?” The small pile of white petals in the center of the folding table between them was only a tiny portion of the petals on the table. Most of them sat in front of him, ruffling slowly in the faint breeze of the public garden.

She only winked and pushed over the two. “I have a strategy.”

Off to the side, Cloudy rolled her eyes. She’d had to fold two hooves ago and now sat between them, watching the game play out. “She has no strategy. She’s playing with you.”

“She’s losing, though.” Collar flicked an ear and stared hard at the cards floating in front of him. He had a solid set this time: a suite of Feathers. There wasn’t much that could beat it, and Rosemary only had three petals left.

“If you believe that, then go all in,” Cloudy said with a snort, her face impassive.

Rosemary only beamed at him and fanned herself with one of the remaining petals.

“But that’s…” Collar sighed and glanced over his cards again. The rules and values, even the cards, were the same as a similar game in Damme, Bardings, played with actual bits instead of petals. It was popular in taverns for a friendly game, but the rare high-stakes game existed.

None of those felt more high-stakes than this.

Petals was played for favors, not money, and Rosemary was very much on her mother’s side when it came to pushing him towards the Principes. Cloudy…

He glanced at her, and she looked back placidly, a tiny twitch of her lips that might have been a smile or a frown before it stopped and she schooled herself back to passivity.

“Fine.” Collar shuffled the twenty petals in his pot into the center along with the two stems. “Call and all in.” He placed his five cards down, face up, and got the satisfaction of seeing Rosemary’s ears snap back, upset in her eyes. “High Feather Suit.”

It lasted only a few seconds before that smile came back. That damned smile.

One-by-one, she laid her cards down, starting with the one of suns, then the two of stars, the three of moons…

Collar swallowed, watching the last two cards waver as she sniffed them.

“Smells like… victory.”

Down came the Mare and the Princess. A Celestial Flush. A low-suit flush, but the only way he’d have beaten it would be to have a higher suite. The Heart was still in the deck, and so was The Crown.

Collar stared at them for long moments, then glanced at the stakes chart laid out on the table beside them. That was the things she could buy with her petals. And three stems.

At the very top, for every single petal and stem, was a kiss.

Her eyes followed his, and she popped a petal in her mouth, chewed briefly, shivered, and swallowed. “No kiss. I’m not going to buy that from you, Collar. When you’re ready, you’ll give it to me.”

What Rosewater had told him. No taking. No trickery. His ears stopped trying to dive into his mane. Why, then, did you put it there? They’d written the ‘purchase’ list after counting out all of the petals available. If it was there to prove a point, that they wouldn’t move on him without his explicit, uncompelled consent…

The next item below that was three new books to read every week. He’d have been happy to give them to her without her needing to ‘pay’ for them, but…

After that was an hour of frank talk once a week. That almost scared him more than the kiss had.

“Hmm.” Rosemary twirled one of the stems over the scrap of paper and the five items listed there. Five prizes to be won from her column. Two other columns held his and Cloudy’s bounties.

She tapped the last item on his column. “Three questions, answered truthfully and without obfuscation.” She tapped another one from Cloudy’s list. “Three secrets shared.” Each one was worth a quarter of her petals. “And…”

“Wait, you can buy things from another pony’s list?” Collar asked, raising his brows. “You didn’t tell me.”

“Mmm. We did say that anything written down was up for grabs.” Cloudy’s facade faded away, and she smirked. “It’s your fault you thought it was only what you wrote down.”

“And this is the last one.” She tapped the middle option on her list. “I want to ask your mother what she knows about my mother.” It read, One small favor.

“Rosemary, I’d do that without you needing to—”

“Too late! I’ve already spent my petals.” Rosemary’s grin was bright, fierce, and uncompromising. Most of them. The ones she’d spent sat in one pile, but a small pile of six more sat to the side of the paper scrap. “Now, we get to make petal salad for lunch.”

He glanced at Cloudy, looking for support, but the only look she gave him in return was a shrug, a smile, and a flick of her tail. “I’ll leave you two to settle up the details. I’ve gotta head out.”

Unspoken, but plain, was Cloudy’s interest in finding what Rosewater’s movements had been after their date. Whether she’d spent the time alone or not.

Leaving him alone with Rosemary as she nibbled on the end of a stem.

“Did you cheat?”

Rosemary grinned, twitched the stem to the corner of her mouth and shuffled the spent petals back into the center of the table. “If I did?”

Collar sighed. “Is that another rule? Don’t get caught?”

The grin grew into a smile, and she winked. “There are many rules to Petals, Collar. Don’t get caught is one of them, but it doesn’t pertain only to ‘cheating’ as you so callously put it.” She glanced at the sheet again, then tipped her head back, the stem making a little circle as she pursed her lips.

“An ‘alternate’ way of playing, then,” Collar said, fighting to hide his own smile.

“Mmm. Yes. And, I have just a few petals that I can’t think of a use for.” She collected five, the minimum amount for a prize from the sheet, and settled them in front of him. The last, she popped in her mouth. “What would you like?”

“Three questions, answered honestly.” It wasn’t even something he’d needed to think about. It was the reason he’d made it the cheapest of his options. He could have bought a dozen answers. Three, though…

Rosemary grinned and nodded as if she’d expected that all along. “I’ve only been honest with you. As… much as my mother’s secrets allow me to.” She slipped the deck into its pouch and stood. “I would like to get lunch before you start grilling me. And a victorious petal salad sounds amazing right now.”

“It is about that time. Will you share?” Collar eyed the petals. They were thick and fresh, plucked from carnations that Lace had given up from her own personal garden in return for Rosemary helping her cultivate a few new bulbs.

“Of course. Sharing, Collar, is at the heart of a Merrie bonded family.” She winked and ticked her ears in a playful cant before prancing off, the petals forming a halo over her head that spun slowly in her pink magic.

Collar let the shield fall, sighed, and watched her go before standing up and reflexively brushing off his rump with a flick of his tail.

Coincidentally, he heard one of the gardeners murmur to his partner, “That is a mare who knows what she wants.”

“Who she wants, you mean,” the other gardener said, loud enough for Collar to hear, though barely.

He couldn’t keep the flush from climbing up his neck. Stars. Two weeks ago, his greatest romantic concern had been what to get Cloudy for their anniversary.

Cloudy sat on a cloud above the edge of the river, watching as the white form toured the garden with a pegasus and a unicorn, their features indistinguishable even with the finest scope she could scrounge up from the armory. But that white coat and pink mane and tail were hard to mistake for anypony other than Rosewater in the early afternoon sun.

They were meandering up the hill, stopping here and there to apparently sample the late-season grapes that would become the sweeter winter wines. All around them, work continued by earth ponies and others as they raised their heads to look towards the tourist among them.

Thank you.

It made her heart lighter knowing Rosewater had listened to her, and happier still that she wasn’t making it a one-time event. She’d gone back the next day, unbidden. Cloudy would need to ask who her friends were and try to get to know them when she got the chance, and thank them for taking care of Rosewater.

The rustle of wings announced a visitor before the cloud shifted and hooves touched down, sinking minutely into the cloudstuff before firming. She didn’t need to smell the wash to know it was Stride. The cadence of his landing was familiar from weeks and months spent training together to join the Dammeguard and plenty of patrols afterwards.

“Hey, Stride.” She didn’t break her observation, but shifted it away from Rosewater to the villa in general, noting the activity all over the place. “Aren’t you supposed to be doing rounds?”

“Done early. It’s been quiet the last week,” Stride said with a snort. She didn’t miss the sound of him licking his lips. The false bravado was comforting. He was recovering from his ordeal at least a little. A week of recovery under Cloudy’s direction had helped him. “What are you doing up here?”

“Just checking on some of our ponies of interest. It’s been too quiet.”

Stride snorted again. “I’m just glad it’s been quiet.”

“You’ll get lazy with that attitude. Can’t keep up with me if you get lazy, Stride.” She grinned and lowered her scope to let it hang around her neck. “What really brought you up here?”

He shuffled a touch, then glanced at her. “How do you deal with it?”

“With the raid?”

For a moment, Stride shook his head, then nodded, and finally shrugged. “I mean… you’re dealing with her, right?”

Fighting the urge to bristle at the mention of Rosewater as a villain was hard. She’d never been a villain, no matter how well she played the part. Now that she understood that… “She’s not evil, Stride. Did you get through the histories I assigned you?”

Part of his officer candidacy training program was reading and understanding the history of both cities as a part of Lace’s Reformation. More recently, that had moved to the history of the major players in present-day Merrie. Including every speculative bit that wasn’t damning of Rosewater.

“I… started,” he admitted, dropping his ears. “Is that relevant?”

“It is. She’s been nothing but genteel and polite in dealing with us.”

“As expected, right? She’s operating under the treaty.”

“That’s never stopped Roseate from bending the strictures into pretzels before,” Cloudy groused. “Rosewater’s different, Stride. She honestly cares for her cousin, and she’s doing everything she can to make sure the negotiations move along smoothly.”

“But she’s still making eyes at Lord Collar.”

“And?” Cloudy gave a derisive snort of her own. “She’s still hopeful, Stride, it doesn’t mean that she’s going to succeed, and it doesn’t hurt our stance that she’s hopeful.”

That triggered a frown from him. “But isn’t that dishonest? Shouldn’t you tell her he’s not interested?”

“He’s already said as much,” Cloudy said, leaving off that he wasn’t going to deny the chance to get to know her better outside the treaty meetings. “We’re not using it to deceive her, Stride. She’s her own pony, and she can decide to try and pursue him if she wants. Whether or not he reciprocates is his choice.”

“But… he has you.”

It was a risk, and Cloudy checked their altitude and airspace before adding, “And Rosemary. I’m marrying her, Stride. I decided that before I even crossed the bridge. Before I even met Collar.”

That seemed to set him back on his heels for a moment, then he recovered. “Then Lady Lace approves?”

“Not in the open.” Cloudy checked their height again, and their airspace. “It’s a part of the Reformations, Stride. And he is, by blood at least, half Merrier. It’s in his heritage as much as it is mine.”

Stride stayed still for a long moment, his gaze focused off in the distance, darting between emptiness and close to her, then away again. “Does he love her?”

“Stars, Stride, they just met a few weeks ago.” Cloudy rolled her eyes. “She likes him, but she’s not in love with him either. We don’t fall in love at the drop of a hat, but we have different kinds of love, different degrees, and…” Cloudy shrugged. “Maybe they won’t ever be sexual partners, but they can still find their love.” She desperately hoped that Rosemary would find her joy with Collar, even in sexuality, but she wouldn’t hold it against her if she only found her love in Cloudy. “But I think they can. She’s too kind and sweet for him to hate her.”

He nodded at that, frowning down at his hooves.

Cloudy flexed her wings and rolled her neck. “It’s too early to say what’s going to happen, but… I’m satisfied with the way things are proceeding.”

“Merrier romance seems messy.”

Cloudy barked a laugh. “It can be! Stars above, it can be, but we’re used to it and we wouldn’t have it any other way.” Laughter faded into a rough chuckle. “Maybe someday, you’ll get to experience just how messy and wonderful it can be.”

She could have dipped his ears in ice water and gotten less of a response.

“W-what?” He sputtered and shook his head, then stood abruptly, his cheeks flushed, and turned around. “Last one to the palace is a pigeon!”

“Hah! You—” She broke off suddenly and stared off to her right, mouth open. “Hey, Gale.”

Before Stride had finished turning to look, Cloudy dove down through the cloud, wings snapping out and catching the air, bending her dive into a sharp turn even as she called on her magic and flew into her own slipstream.

Stride’s indignant squawk behind her was followed by a sharp whistle as he followed her in the next second.

Some day… he might not fall for that.

The wind coming off the sea was clean with no beach to speak of for seaweed and detritus to catch and rot off the side of the cliff. Salt, sea foam, and the still-warm air pulled up the fragrance of the slowing operations on Rosewine Hill, and a touch of the ponies that were working all around.

The wine from the Rosewine Vineyards all came from here, the broad, domed hill that abutted the cliff that plunged down into the sea. Grapes grew all over the hill, and while some were already fully harvested and were being put to rest by their tending earth ponies for the winter, there was more than enough to do that it was hard to find a row that wasn’t being tended.

For Rosewater’s freshly reawakened need for contact with other ponies, it was a blessing and a curse. She felt awash in a world she’d left behind years ago and only gotten slapped for trying to reenter time and again. Whether Roseate had been deliberate in her actions or it was the blind fumbling of a mad tyrant, she might never know.

It was so clear to her now, and becoming clearer, just how foolish she’d been to take the road she had, and at the same time certain that the road she’d taken was still the right one.

Ahead of her, Bliss cupped a bunch of grapes with a wing, inspecting them critically before nodding and letting them settle back down gently.

Beside her, Dazzle made it a point to stay close to her, inspecting this or that grape bush long enough for Rosewater to move on to the next clump of workers.

They were ponies of all ages, all social strata, and all had the same semi-awed expression when they first saw her, like she was a mythical figure that had just climbed out of a dusty cupboard.

“It’s a beautiful day,” Dazzle commented. He pulled out a paring knife from his work saddle and nicked off a small bundle, then dabbed a bit of wax on the cut end to keep it from leaking or rotting. “Too beautiful not to share in the grapes.”

“I admit I don’t know much about making wine,” Rosewater said, leaning down to sniff the bunch, surprised when he twisted free a grape and pressed it to her lips. She accepted, mindful of the taste and fragrance as the plump fruit burst in her mouth. Tart. Sweet. And it had two tiny seeds that she maneuvered and spit into the waiting bag Dazzle offered up. “Delicious.”

“Aren’t they?” Dazzle grinned and bobbed his head, popping one into his mouth. “I talked to some of the other ponies that knew you before… well…” He flicked an ear. “They said they were happy to see you again, and hadn’t known why you didn’t come around anymore.”

“I need to see them all sometime,” Rosewater said with a small breath, not quite a sigh. “I want to see them all. But I’m glad I’m not rushing headlong into reconnecting.”

“Too much all at once?”

“I think it might be. I can deal with being alone, Dazzle. But I… I don’t want to. Not when I don’t have to.”

He sidled closer and bumped his shoulder against hers. “Then don’t. Go at your own pace.”

They plodded ahead, shoulder to shoulder, catching up slowly to Bliss checking the individual clusters of vines. What she was doing with them, Rosewater had no idea, but given that she was the Garden’s lead weather pony, it might have something to do with how well watered they were.

“Thank you.”

Dazzle nodded ahead to Bliss. “I hope the night we want to ask you for isn’t too much.”

“Oh?”

“Yes. Roselyn is going to be spending the night with Prism in a few nights, and Bliss wanted to ask you to be with her. I asked if I could join, and so…” He shrugged as they came up to the beautiful mare, her dancer’s body only partially obscured by her work harness and it’s multivarious pockets and tools sticking out. “We want to invite you to dinner with us, and to stay the night with both of us.”

“The night,” Bliss said as she cupped another bunch of grapes and flirted her tail as she gave them a sniff and hefted them, her feathers shifting slowly as she rolled them back and forth. “Not just dinner and then we get to see you go home. Sleep with us.”

But I haven’t even— She cut the thought off before it finished. If Collar didn’t accept her, she needed to still cultivate a relationship somewhere.

Don’t be that cold. “Why? You both barely know me.”

“You’re kind,” Dazzle said immediately. “Generous. I’ve heard that much from Seed the past few days. Even before, he would lament that you weren’t around.”

“And you may not remember me,” Bliss said, dropping the bunch of grapes and turning to her, “but I remember you. I was all gangling and legs six years ago. Not a mare who poses for statues.” She spread her wings and struck a pose with a foreleg lifted, showing off the sleekness of her form, built for the air and the ground at once.

“Stunning,” Rosewater agreed, quickly filtering through the ponies she remembered from her lazy days at the Garden with Carnation and Rosemary. Several pegasi stood out prominently, but… Bliss’s unique plumage was hard to forget. She’d have been younger than her first majority at the time, and Rosewater barely past her second. “I maybe… remember seeing you. My focus was mainly on Rosemary and Seed and the trouble they got into.”

“That sounds like them,” Bliss said with a chirping laugh. “I remember you taking care of Seed and Rosemary and a few others. Roselyn remembers you, too, but she’s still too young. I’m twenty-four, Rosewater. I know what kind of mare I like, I know what kind of lover I enjoy. I know what kind of mare you are.”

There wasn’t much she could say to that other than reject their offer, and it had been almost a year since her last encounter with another pony. Bliss… she was kind, had been attentive and gentle with her at their breakfast yesterday. That she was beautiful was secondary, but there was an attraction to her that Rosewater couldn’t deny.

Too, the little flashes of her marehood she gave throughout the afternoon were more than incidental glimpses. It was hard to miss the smouldering, brief look or the fragrance of Dazzle’s arousal each time.

But can I? Dazzle was a stallion, and that would put him at the top of any hit list Roseate wanted to make. If she forgot to renew her infertility, or removed the spell, and he did…

Rosewater took a breath and glanced from one to the other, seeing the look of hope in both of their eyes. “It’s because I’m tall, isn’t it?”

Dazzle chuckled, then started laughing at the same time Bliss did. “Stars, yes. That’s one reason. I like a workout when I have sex.”

“It means he can be lazy afterwards,” Bliss said with a tittering laugh. “I, on the other hoof, want the chance to watch Dazzle for once. He’s good with his cock and his magic… I want to see that look of… Bliss on your face, Rosewater.”

Rosewater joined them, laughing, then kissed one and the other lightly on the lips. “You’ve convinced me, and I do want it. Name the day, and I’ll be there.”

Author's Note

This was more of a transition chapter between two chapters, connecting events that didn't have connective tissue before.