Of course, edging couldn't last forever... or I guess it could, maybe, but I certainly didn't want it to.

Valentine went out to talk to Warden and make sure she was up to speed on everything, and take a look at the defenses.

I paced the room, my pussy aching softly from the the teasing and lack of release.

Wren was under the covers, and for a moment I thought she had fallen asleep, until I heard her soft whimpering and saw the slight movement under the covers.

"...Wren, are you still touching yourself?"

"Yes, Sasha... sorry, I'll stop. I should be a good guard-fox and protect you." She licked her hand clean and got to her feet shakily, walking over towards the door.

I put a hand on her shoulder to stop her. "I'm not upset, just... isn't that uncomfortable?"

She stared at me with slightly teary eyes. "...it feels good to know I'm torturing myself for Mistress Eve. But being useful is more important."

I hugged her close. "...fuck. I... I guess I always imagined you'd be more mentally resilient."

"I'm trained in mental resilience, but since I know how to resist, I also know how to surrender. And... Mistress Eve made it very clear what the rest of my life would be like if I didn't surrender. Kept letting me choose resistance or surrender again and again and again and again... until I opened up all my defenses and helped her break every single part of me." She shuddered in my arms, pressing close. "It's fine. I don't have anything else to go back to... all the pain and suffering was my choice, Mistress Eve tried to make it easy on me, but I didn't listen...." She started sniffling, and I stroked her back a bit awkwardly... I had put my dress back on, but she was still naked.

"Mmm, it's okay, Wren... Mistress Eve left you with me in part so I could help you recover... you don't have to spend every second thinking of her, you've already proven your loyalty...."

She started crying softly as she nuzzled against my shoulder. "Do you think she'll be happy with me for defending you? Am I a good guard-fox?"

"...probably...." I sighed softly and hugged her close. I really didn't know how to unbreak this girl... it's not like I could return her to her family or anything. "You've always been good, I just... wish I hadn't fucked up so bad with you, and her. Maybe if I had been smarter, I could have prevented this."

She shook her head, nuzzling against my shoulder and growling softly. "It was my fault for being stubborn... if I had just accepted I belonged to her, maybe she wouldn't have destroyed everything I had ever known... she didn't want to hurt me... I just was stubborn, and I wouldn't accept I was nothing more than her belonging until she had torn everything away from me again and again and again...."

"Shhh... you're not allowed to blame yourself."

"...then who do I blame? I can't blame Mistress Eve... or you... and you were just blaming yourself, thinking you could have prevented our Goddess's will."

"You know she's not really a--" She slapped me mid-sentence, and I stopped, stunned.

"Shut up! Why won't you let me have even this!?" She blinked, lowering her hand, her tail and ears slumping, and tried to pull back, lowering her head and whimpering. "I'm sorry, I'll be good, please forgive me, I'll be good, don't get rid of me...."

I forcibly pulled her close into a hug. "No one's getting rid of you, Wren. You're..." Sister felt like the wrong term, given how sexual our relationship had become. "We're... comrades. Mistress Eve shaped us both into who we are, and even before that we were friends. I'm very grateful you protected me today, and I'm going to protect you, okay?"

She nodded against my shoulder as she sniffled against my shoulder, her body trembling in my arms. "I'll be a good guard-fox... Mistress Eve knows that, right...? I protected you...." She started sobbing softly.

For what seemed like eternity, I didn't know what to do except hold her.

Eventually, I hazarded, "...Do you want to cuddle in bed?"

She nodded against my shoulder again, and I guided her back there, pulling the covers over us mostly and wrapping my arms around her and holding her tight. "It'll be okay...." Somehow. Somehow it had to be okay, right?

Wren had fallen asleep half-sprawled on top of me when the door slowly opened, and my body tensed for a moment as I searched my mind for relevant spells, before the towering and comforting figure of Valentine showed herself. She started to set down the tray on a table, noticed the sword, and set it down on another table instead. She pointed at the tray and then at me, and I realized there was food on it... I was hungry, but I didn't want to wake up Wren, so I pointed to her and shrugged slightly.

She walked closer, utterly silent, and slowly and carefully sat down next to me, bed shifting under her weight, but managed to not wake up Wren.

I tilted my head as I looked up at her, trying to look as curious as possible, and she shrugged helplessly, grinning-- apparently nothing too interesting in the news since we had been sequestered, or at least nothing she could communicate via pointing, my last attempt at full-on charades with her had failed horribly.

She stroked my head as I lay there with Wren utterly relaxed on top of me, and I relaxed too, and soon enough fell asleep.

I felt a lack of warmth, and reached my arms out a little to cuddle up to my constant companion, only to realize she wasn't there, and my eyes slowly blinked open. Ah, right... Eve was still off proving herself to Princess Asperia again. Valentine and Wren were sitting in a couple of chairs Val must have brought in, Wren eating from the tray as Valentine petted her head. I... didn't feel jealous! Fuck yeah!

Maybe because Wren was so piteous, or maybe some part of my brain had accepted that Valentine wasn't mine... or more likely, that it just looked innocent and comforting? I pushed the covers back and got to my feet, walking over to sit in the third chair, tail wagging softly. Finally we could talk again.

Val smiled and reached over to pet my head, and I nuzzled into it a little, tail thumping against my chair. Val would be like, the perfect girlfriend if she didn't like basically all cute girls... but that wasn't enough to stop my heart from swaying towards her.

Wren inclined her head a little after she finished her current bite of pastry. "I'm sorry that I fell apart like that, Sasha... I know you're trying your best. I am too. I... actually feel a little bit more hopeful, now. Mistress Eve can't always be by your side, and she wants to protect you... maybe I can be your bodyguard."

I flushed and looked away, but nodded. "Yeah, um, but you have to protect yourself too, okay?"

Wren nodded seriously, smiling. "I'll do my best. A good bodyguard doesn't throw her life away." There was a bit of confidence in her voice again.

That confidence was probably why I had been attracted to her in the first place, back when we had first met, and now she was calling herself my bodyguard, and that made me think about bodyguard romance novels. Not that I had read a ton of that, and like, not every single one of them was full on smut, but you know... a couple.

Wren would protect me... fuck, my heart was fickle. Anyone says they'll take care of me and I just fucking melt.

"You okay there Sasha?" Valentine's voice was a little amused, and she scritched behind my ears thoroughly, causing me to gasp and clutch at the arm of the chair.

"You two are unfair."

"...is it that bad, volunteering myself to be your bodyguard? I won't get in the way of you and Mistress Eve, I promise!"

"No, nothing like that... just you're both... really cute. Fuck."

Both of them stared at me for a moment, then looked at each other. "Right now?" Val asked as she reached over to grope my breast, causing a moany squeak to somehow emerge from my throat.

"Is it all right if I finish eating first, Miss Sasha? As your bodyguard, I need to keep my energy up."

"No, um, I wasn't suggesting-- sorry, it's a curse word back on my world."

Val blinked blankly as Wren quickly looked over and studied her face.

"Oh... I've told both of you that I'm actually the Hero From Another World in this body, and more or less fine with that, right? You don't have to hide it from each other."

Val grinned. "Oh, okay. Glad you're feeling mostly fine with it." Her hand slid down to stroke my side, petting me more generally and gently rather than explicitly sexual groping.

Wren blinked a couple of times. "You two seem pretty close and trusting for just meeting in the harem."

Val pondered this for a moment, and grinned as she picked me up and slid me into her lap, the chair creaking beneath our combined weight... it was probably not meant to handle Valentine on her own, much less the two of us together. "We met a few days before we arrived at the harem. Actually, they helped introduce me to Princess Asperia and get me a position... but soon enough they decided to become her slaves too."

"I can't believe my goddess would become her slave...."

I squirmed uneasily in Val's lap, feeling a bit guilty. "Well... she had her reasons. Come to think of it, it's weird to me that you two call the women you look up to 'goddess' when well, you know, humans killed off the deities."

"...maybe? Animalfolk see it a bit different, I guess, but maybe that should've bothered our Princess. Well, she's very good at seeing through to someone's heart." Val's eyes shone as she spoke of Princess Asperia.

Wren shrugged. "She told me that's what she was. It's not my place to question any of her decisions." She smiled at me, her eyes not shining like Val's... but at least she looked like she had a little life in her. "I really hope I'm allowed to stay by your side as your bodyguard... Oh! Would you like something to eat?"

I looked over at the tray, and picked up a handful of dried fruit and nuts, and a couple balls of cheese, and was going to eat them out of my hand like some sort of animal... okay, maybe that wasn't the right way to think of it with animalfolk existing, but regardless, I noticed the small stack of small plates, and transferred them over to that, placing it in my lap and starting to snack idly as Val continued to shower me with affection and Wren returned to her pastry.

"...okay, I'm beginning to kind of understand why Princess Asperia likes having a harem so much."

"Right?" said Val. "Cute girls are cute, and more of them are more cute, and it's cute when they all fawn over you together. Well...  I'd rather be part of my goddess's harem than have my own harem."

Wren finished her current bite and pondered for a moment. "Tell me: is Princess Asperia a goddess?"

"Huh?" Val blinked, but at the very same time I said, "Not as far as I know?"

Wren eyed me for a moment longer, but it seemed like she had decided that maybe Princess Asperia was... probably made it easier to believe her own goddess voluntarily enslaving herself to her. And I had given a noncommital answer.

Come to think of it, I didn't know Princess Asperia wasn't a goddess... she was someone beyond death, who was slowly evolving into something beyond human, who didn't need sleep, and no longer interacted with mana... was that a goddess?

I had no idea.

I'd have to read about it in the library, once I was no longer stuck in this cage (metaphorical) of a room.

Well... even if it was a cage, at least I had a cute tiger and fox to share it with.