Valentine kneeled in front of me while I petted her head and scritched behind her ears and murmured comforting things.

The door to my room opened, and Lady Wren looked out, with a raised eyebrow-- well, I guess she was still Wren, technically speaking, but I could see the full air of the proud young woman I used to know, even if her body was now that of a cute foxgirl.

I quickly removed my hands, and waved them in the air, flushing slightly. "It wasn't like, a sex thing! I was just comforting her!"

Valentine looked over and smiled at her sheepishly.

Lady Wren stared at us for a long moment, then smiled slightly. "Come in, you two." It wasn't the sort of voice that expected opposition.

Valentine stood up, and I trailed behind her.

Lady Wren-- that is, Wren was sitting on the bed, and Valentine walked up to kneel in front of her. After a moment, I did as well. Another raised a smile, but then a slightly larger smile.

"So. We need to discuss this matter with our Princess."

Valentine's eyes widened. "No! She'll kill you!"

Wren reached out to stroke the top of her head. I wondered if she was jealous of me for doing it. "I'm hardly going to be able to hide the change in personality, and I'm not going back to being a bootlicker for that... thing."

I thought about this for a long moment. "...maybe we don't need to tell her... well, quite everything that happened? You regained your old personality and were angry, I thought you were threatening me, and I used a blast of wind against you, and ran to get Valentine. Once I came back, I healed you, and we patched things up."

Valentine shook her head. "...do you really think she's going to leave a threat against her consort alive? Especially one that calls her 'a thing'?"

Wren closed her eyes for a moment. "...Yes, that was impolite of me towards her fiance. It's hard to entirely conceal my ire, however, even if I have no plans to act on it."

I furrowed my brow. "...she's not dumb."

Wren reached down and took hold of Valentine's collar, and tugged her a little closer, until she laid her head in her lap. She stroked her cheek softly. "No, but she's grateful towards me for protecting you, and I think she feels a little bad about what... her lady consort did to me."

Valentine was purring softly, though the end of her tail was twitching... I didn't know how to read that.

I was feeling a little jealous again, despite the imminent threat, and looked away. "...what would it take for her to see you as more useful than a threat, I wonder?"

Wren considered this. "Well, I definitely need to go pledge my loyalty to her anew. I'd... prefer if you two weren't there for that, actually."

Valentine furrowed her brow. "...you're not planning on murdering her, are you?"

I shook my head. "We need to back up your story. I have no doubt the Princess will want to talk to you in private after that."

Wren looked over at me. "If we position you as the aggressive one, you'll be in danger, you know."

I took a deep breath, but nodded. "It's not like it's entirely false anyways... I don't think you could have brought yourself to kill me, in the end. If you could, you wouldn't have waited for me to close my eyes."

Wren narrowed her eyes a little, looking like she wanted to protest, but then closed her eyes, sighed and nodded. "No... I was really trying to make myself kill you, but it was hard after everything you've done for me since Eve violated my mind. Not even either of my families has ever looked after me to that extent. It's just hard to bear this humiliation."

I reached up my hand, and she took it after a moment. "Is it okay if I still consider us sisters, then?"

She smiled down and me and squeezed my hand a little. "I'll allow it. Come, let's go try to arrange an appointment with Princess Asperia before word gets to her through other channels for too long."

***

We dropped by the kitchen on the way, and coming up to Princess Asperia's room, did indeed see Zince outside it, chatting with another guard-- actually, the freckled, green-eyed one I had first met in my other body. Well, Eve's body. Although in a way, this body belonged to Eve too... I really needed to cum, judging from my thought process and recent dream, I was getting way too horny about Eve and her control over me.

Regardless, the woman I had stood awkwardly in the hall with smiled at us, and I walked up to Zince and handed her a tray with some rolls, butter, and cheese. "Good morning, is our Princess available?"

Zince smiled a bit awkwardly. "Oh, thank you. You saw that, huh... she's busy."

I nodded. "I just wanted to report that I had panicked and attacked L-- I Had attacked Wren here."

Wren smiled. "There was no harm done. And I wished to report I had used my family's techniques to regain part of my mind that the slaver who captured me had taken. I still have no intention other than serving Princess Asperia. I did... get emotional when I first used my family's techniques, it was a lot to process. I certainly understand why Sasha saw me as a threat when I started freaking out... but she's been like a sister to me, and I wouldn't harm her."

The freckled guard raised her eyebrow. "...there's some animalfolk families who have techniques against mind magic? Don't know if I see the point... but, well... I guess it makes sense for elite guards, actually." She shook her head after a moment, grimacing a bit, then smiling apologetically at Wren. "Sorry, that was ignorant of me, there's all types of training in this world, and you hardly have any say over it. I'm Chrysanthemum, call me Chrys. I'm here to protect you all, so don't hesitate if you ever need help."

My eyes went to Chrys's neck, and I blinked. "You're not a slave."

Chrys smiled sheepishly-- she was the only one of us without a collar. "No... I've been her guard since she was young. I think she's actually stronger than I am, at this point... but I'm still stronger than most of you girls, so it's not like I'm useless." Well... I'm guessing everyone else here was stronger than her, even me, when I had access to my magic, at least. "And it's useful for her to have non-slave guards at times, for the sake of appearances. Just think of me as your big sister."

"Okay, big sister!" said Valentine cheerfully.

Chrys flushed. "...wait, are you Valentine? The Valentine?" She looked down. "Look at me bragging... I'm nothing compared to you."

Valentine reached out and ruffled Chrys's hair. "Yeah. Just think of me as your big sister if you want... or your little sister-- we're all here to protect our Princess, you know? I'm not too particular about positions..." There was a little bit of flirtatious sneaking into her voice. I was not at all confident about Valentine pulling off this whole monogamy thing.

Wren looked over Chrys. "You're bigger and stronger than I am... but if you ever want anti-Mind Magic training, I can give you the very basics, at least. Perhaps we should look into training the entire harem in that, so it isn't weak versus outside influences."

I smiled, and gave Chrys a little wave. "Hi, by the way-- I'm Sasha, and this is Wren."

Chrys looked over to me. "Wait, Sasha... the high consort's slave? I'm just embarrassing myself here today." She smiled sheepishly. "But... I'm fairly sure there are other Mind Magic users out there, that's not a bad idea... noble houses are usually loath to teach their techniques to outsiders, but I guess that's not the same for animalfolk'."

"Well... it would've been taboo among my family, too, but they're dead now." There was a deep sadness in Wren's voice. "You're all my family, now. All I can do is protect you. In truth, I should ask the Princess about it, though... sorry, I'm... still dealing with some stuff."

Valentine wrapped her arm around Wren,squeezed her softly, and looked over to Zince. "Why did you get so mad with Fuletta, Zin?"

Zince had been eating the rolls and cheese delicately, although avoiding the butter, and finished her current bite before replying. "She was acting impolitely from our standards... but I should've been way gentler about it. People tend to cut me a lot of slack given how much I work with our Princess, and I took it too far." Just a bit of sibilance when she used words with "s"... I suspected she was still a bit worked up.

I swallowed, face heating up. Maybe that's something I could help with...? "Do you want me to serve you while we wait, Zince?"

Zince blinked and flushed a little bit at that, but shook her head. "I might crush you if you serviced me right now... I'm way too emotional."

I nodded. "...maybe a shoulder massage?"

Zince smiled at me. "...that sounds nice."

I walked behind her and she slid her snake body a bit closer to the ground, lowering her torso in the process, and I started to gently massage her shoulders... they were very tense.

Chrys looked between us and Wren and Valentine a bit awkwardly, and curtseyed with the split skirt that hung around her waist over her armor. "I'll go check out the dining hall and make sure everything's in order there. Send word if our Princess has any questions for me." She walked away.

Valentine sat down, leaning her back against the wall. Wren sat in her lap, somehow still managing to have an air of nobility and command even with the intimacy and size difference, as if Valentine was some sort of grandiose throne of hers-- I'm pretty sure if I was sitting in her place, I would only look like a cute pet.