Vidalia counseled Tybalt on political strategy and beastfolk culture for a while.

  “Most of that didn’t really need to be kept secret from Mariella,” he observed after the topic was temporarily exhausted. “I kind of wish I’d told her to stay.”

  Vidalia shook her head. “It’s not a problem. I’ve been telling her almost all of the same things I’ve just discussed with you, just slipped casually into conversation over the period you were sleeping. Only the strategy stuff is unique to this talk.”

  He looked at her, impressed, then reached over and gently fondled her big, fluffy fox ears.

  “Like I said, she’s going to be one of us,” Vidalia continued, smiling and wagging her tail. “She needs to understand her extended family on some level.”

  “I should stop being surprised that you anticipate my wishes.”

  It’s something I could easily get used to.

  “Is it the kind of thing you could get used to?” she asked, winking.

  His hand stopped in mid-ear stroke.

  “Do you actually read minds, too?”

  “I wish. Only in the sense that I remember details from dreams. I knew you were about to say that you could get used to me anticipating what you wanted.”

  “What am I going to ask next, then?”

  “Is Mariella going to adapt? Or, how are we going to win her over?”

  Tybalt swallowed and nodded. That was exactly what he wanted to know about the future.

  “Unfortunately, I think she’s going to insist on going home,” Vidalia said in a sad tone. “Not permanently, but because she wants to try and explain herself to her family. I tried to warn her that it’s dangerous, that she is very likely to die making the journey there and back. She might even be tortured by your insane, evil religious authorities, and I told her that. I don’t think it feels real to her yet, but- ”

  “Wait, tortured? Really? She’s a noble girl from an important family.”

  “Do you think the fanatics in your homeland will care about that?”

  “Yes. Unequal justice is the rule, not an exception to the rule.”

  “Well, if you say so. Anyway, I told her all of this, but I also wanted to leave most of that conversation to you. I hope you’ll take it seriously and push hard. She is at real risk, no matter what you or she might think. I can’t say anything is certain to happen, but the risk that she gets captured by the enemy is higher than a fifty percent chance.”

  Tybalt took a deep breath and made himself relax a little. I have time to persuade her. It’s fine.

  “You should make the hard case, too,” he said after a moment. “I think that in just under a week, you’ve already won her trust. And I have a spotty track record of being trustworthy from her perspective.”

  “True. But you also have… ways of persuading her that I lack.”

  There was a long silence, in which the necromancer wasn’t really thinking about anything. Then he realized it had gone quiet, and he turned his gaze down to Vidalia.

  The foxgirl was staring at him, a smouldering look on her normally cute features. Tybalt felt his stomach jump. She had clearly been unable to keep from thinking about his persuasion methods.

  In an instant, one kind of tension diminished, and another rose in its place.

  It’s just like the dreams, the necromancer thought, cogent thought quickly fading. Instant lust. How does she do that? We were just talking about something serious, and now… If she looked at me like that all the time… would I ever get anything done?

  Vidalia ran a hand over Tybalt’s chest, wordless, breathing harder. Her tongue darted between her lips, licking them lightly before she quickly withdrew it back into her mouth. She clenched her hand into a tight fist, nails digging into her palm as if she was trying to control herself. She shook her head, telling herself “no.”

  The fact that she was so obviously fighting temptation was what set him off. Genuine attraction from the other person was always the most intense aphrodisiac. He couldn’t resist giving her a little push. The necromancer leaned down and kissed her again. In the back of his mind, he found it strange to think this was the second kiss ever between the two of them.

  This one was open-mouthed and passionate, and he allowed his hands to roam over her body freely. He caressed her breasts, squeezed her ass, and played with her furry tail and ears. She let out a little moan—then grabbed one of his hands in both of hers and pulled it away.

  “Please stop, all of those places are too sensitive,” she said, breathing heavily. “I’ll—I won’t be able to control myself. I’m trying to wait…” She blushed, and he realized he could smell the feminine musk that he remembered from dreams they had shared. It was intoxicating, and he could feel that it was making him feel more aroused than he would normally be from just a little light foreplay—almost ready to rip her clothes off and disregard what he had said just a few minutes before.

  Is that something beastgirls’ bodies do when they want to mate or something?

  She swallowed and looked away, clearly a little embarrassed.

  “You can smell me, right?” she said. “I’ll need to try and air out the room before Uncle comes home.”

  “It’s not a bad smell. And it makes me… feel things.” He swallowed and tried not to think about what Vidalia had been offering to do with her mouth earlier. He was saving his energy for Mariella. She had won the bet the two women made. And he was supposed to persuade her that she really wanted to stay. “Is that a thing all foxgirls do when they’re… aroused? Or all beastfolk?”

  “Well, I don’t think my biology is particularly different from other foxes, darling,” Vidalia replied dryly. “As much as I feel special, belonging to you. I’m not sure about the other tribes. They have some pretty significant physical differences from us.”

  “I never knew this was even a thing,” Tybalt thought aloud.

  “Well, you’ve never been with a foxgirl in real life,” she said. “If we only count consensual acts, probably no one you know has ever been with a beastwoman.”

  He winced.

  “Sorry,” she said. “That’s not your fault. I just meant, um, men talk. Women know that men talk. But the reason no one has mentioned that aspect to you is probably because… I think we only release that smell with a man we actually want to sleep with. Beastfolk women are usually chaste until marriage, unless the choice is taken away from them. I wasn’t trying to say anything—”

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  “You don’t need to apologize,” he said, interrupting and giving her a quick kiss on the cheek. “As long as you don’t think—”

  “I know you’re not like them. You can tell by the, um… scent… that I think you’re pretty great. It’s an uncontrollable demonstration of my genuine, enthusiastic desire. I can’t fake it. You already know that I would show you right now, exactly what I think of you, if not for that wager with Mariella.” She looked him steadily in the eye, and all he could see in her gaze was devotion.

  “We have plenty of time to get closer,” he said, reaching out and running a hand over her hair. She shuddered when his touch brushed against one ear, as if everything was still too sensitive, and then she leaned her head into his palm. “With Mariella, I had to rush into things. Apparently, I still have more work I have to do with her, as soon as possible. I prefer to take more time, slowly unraveling you. Learning what makes you who you are. When we finally lie next to each other, you’ll feel like you’re with someone who knows you inside and out.”

  The pleasure of seduction is usually mostly in the chase, he thought. And the intimacy is always better with someone you had a good time pursuing. I’m not exactly pursuing Vidalia—she’s thrown herself into my arms—but that feeling is still there. The feel of someone I’m seducing.

  She blushed, smiled, and didn’t say anything for a while.

  “You certainly know how to make a girl feel special,” she said, running a hand over one of his arms. “Mariella, Vicky, and I are lucky.”

  “I know perfectly well that I’m the lucky one.”

  She leaned her face against his chest, and they lay together, silent and still, for a while.

  Tybalt could have easily fallen back asleep with Vidalia and spent the day in her arms, or at least he might have remained that way until Mariella returned and woke them up.

  But after a few minutes of cuddling, the necromancer decided that he couldn’t afford to just relax. He had slept for days, time in which his advantages were stagnating and the Kingdom’s retaliation against himself and the beastfolk was drawing nearer.

  He would take this opportunity, this silence, to begin following up with his undead, reaching out through his telepathic bond to commune with them one by one.

  First things first.

  “Baldwin, report,” he sent.

  He would begin with his first ever undead.

  The revenant responded instantly. “Master, good to know you’re well. You slept for days.”

  Tybalt thought about asking how long, exactly, that had been, but it was a question he could direct at anyone. He wanted to stay focused.

  “Thanks, Baldwin. What’s been going on with you?”

  “Hieron and I have been hunting on the mountainside. It’s kind of lonely, since your other undead have mostly hung around the village.” Tybalt raised an eyebrow at that, but Baldwin kept talking as if he hadn’t said something unusual. “Oh, I brought your women a boar I killed the day before yesterday. I hope you’re enjoying it. And I have a few bodies here for you. I took them to the mountain summit. It’s cold enough here to preserve flesh for a while. Sergeant Remus, in particular, seemed like an important one to save.”

  I guess I did probably eat some food while I was asleep, the necromancer thought. Someone must have fed me, or I’d be famished.

  “Good work,” Tybalt sent.

  “Sorry I didn’t make it to the village in time for your fight with the squad.”

  “I never expected you to.”

  “Still…”

  “I’m not interested in apologies right now, Baldwin. I’m interested in building up our force of undead. You have a new mission. You’re not just hunting. Bring me every body you can, human or animal. Now that I’m awake, it’s time that we begin rapidly expanding our ranks. Obviously don’t kill any beastfolk to accomplish this.”

  He felt as if he had to say the obvious, because Baldwin was the type of person who would bring him a child’s dead body and be surprised that Tybalt was a little uncomfortable with it.

  “Yes, master.” The necromancer sensed a hesitancy in the revenant’s tone.

  “What is it?”

  “Well, you were right. About the Lieutenant. Clearly, from the fact that she’s been, um, warming your bed despite you attacking the squad with the undead. Against all my expectations. Um, so I just wanted to say that. You were right. I was wrong.”

  Ah. The revenant was feeling some uncertainty now about his status, his place in Tybalt’s world. This was his indirect way of seeking reassurance.

  “I appreciate your advice anyway, Baldwin,” he sent. “If you were always right, life would get boring, wouldn’t it? It’s the same with me, except that I need to know when I might be wrong in advance. My mistakes may cost us dearly in the future. So you were performing a useful function. If I don’t want your advice, I’ll tell you so.”

  “As you say, master.”

  Tybalt cut off the chat with Baldwin and briefly connected with Hieron, just to confirm again that nothing of interest had happened to him and Baldwin in the last several days. The only additional detail the fext provided was that his body parts had all reunited, which left him able to walk, run, and climb as if he’d never been dismembered.

  Next, the necromancer communed with four of his undead that he could sense nearby that had gained intelligence in the time Tybalt had been sleeping. There were more intelligent undead, but those others were further away, Tybalt guessed near the mine, so he waited to make the connection to them for now. He imagined that would be a longer conversation.

  “Greetings,” Tybalt sent to the nearest one he could sense. “Are you one of my creatures?”

  “Master, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance…”

  The conversations with the nearby intelligent undead were each almost identical. Four skeletons had attained the capacity for coherent, verbalized thoughts through monster evolution following the battle.

  There were three Skeleton Knights and a Pyro Skeleton.

  They didn’t have much personality, but they could offer him a little bit of insight into what was going on in the village. Perhaps more importantly, this was his first experience with having evolved his monsters.

  As he spoke with them through the bond, he could also picture each one in his head.

  They look strong…

  The skeleton knights were a few of Tybalt’s beastfolk skeletons—including the one Baldwin had nicknamed “Prime”—that had now developed bone armor that emulated plate armor, covering some of their weak spots and their heads. That reminded Tybalt that he wanted bone armor for himself.

  I’ll have to let Baldwin know he was right about Prime lasting longer than I was expecting.

  The Pyro Skeleton looked like the Scorched-Bone Skeleton it had been, but its bones seemed to be denser and almost pure black. The creature still had only the same skills as pre-evolution—all of them did—but Tybalt sensed some fire-related magical potential in the Pyro Skeleton. Perhaps in a few levels, it would gain a skill as Baldwin had.

  Ultimately, the necromancer didn’t issue any new orders to the monsters that were on the mountainside with him. They seemed to be doing constructive things, helping the villagers and making him look good, and he didn’t need them for anything else yet.

  After that conversation, he spoke up in person again. The foxgirl, who was lying curled up against him by this point, appeared to be half-asleep.

  “Vidalia, I’ve been meaning to ask you, how long did I sleep?”

  “Six days,” she replied, yawning. “You were expected to sleep at least a full week, and that was what Mariella bet me wouldn’t happen.”

  “I see.”

  That’s such a long time! I’ve been missing out on so much growth. I guess it couldn’t be helped if my injury was that life-threatening.

  They lapsed into silence again for a while, and Vidalia’s breathing changed as she fell asleep against his chest.

  Tybalt took that opportunity to meditate. His mana had been wreaking havoc inside his body, and he was almost completely certain that had made him heal more slowly. As he moved the destructive energies around inside himself and tried to reduce the potency a bit, he could feel his stomach churn less and the ache in his muscles diminish.

  I’m really looking forward to when my body learns to deal with this power automatically.

  Once that was done, he was ready for what would undoubtedly be the longest and most mentally demanding conversation.

  The necromancer opened a telepathic channel to the undead who had contacted him from the mining camp.