Valentine was looking at me expectantly, waiting for her heals, and I couldn’t tell her I wasn’t running that spec, because– oh thank god, Master was coming over.

“Actually… could I heal you, Valentine, if you don’t mind? Sasha’s been teaching me a little healing magic, and I think I’m pretty decent, but the proof is in the ashes, as they say.” ...who the heck said that? I had to question some of this world’s idioms.

Valentine nodded, a bit more relaxed around Master now after their sparring and her not interfering with the whole Adarvuin situation, it seemed. “Sure, knock yourself out.”

Master ran her hands all over Valentine’s body, healing each wound and bruise she had caused, and I furrowed my eyebrows a bit, frowning… Valentine noticed, and mouthed “sorry” at me when Master’s back was turned, and I smiled at her. No, nothing was wrong at all. Everything’s fine here.

And with that, Master finished the healing with a little headpat on Valentine to heal a gash in her brow, and laughed. “Sorry, Sasha gets a little jealous sometimes.” She reached up to scratch her hand, and then started giving me headpats.

“No, I wasn’t jealous, I was worried you were doing it wrong! And I was right, you are… your hand isn’t supposed to be itchy, and if it’s not an emergency, you should stop healing immediately in that situation and refocus.” I parroted Master’s earlier words back to her.

Master blinked a couple times, and laughed a bit uneasily. “Okay, yeah, I forgot that bit. I was trying not to think weird thoughts, that’s my bad.”

Valentine looked flattered. If these two ended up being a couple, I was going to… do nothing, I guess? I hated how powerless I was.

Master leaned in and gave me a little kiss on the lips, interrupting my thought process, and I looked up at her, surprised. Was that her way of trying to comfort me?

“There’s a town we’ll hit around noon. I suggest we visit it… well, me and Sasha and Milevar. If you go around it while we’re in it, Valentine, I think we can maybe set up some ambiguity of if you were with us. Can call Adarvuin a liar if necessary… though I’d prefer not to. Everyone believes in the righteousness of a guy who's famous for selling off his daughter when she turned out to be late-developing animalfolk, you know? And it’s not like his record has been blighted anywhere else that important.”

What.

How would that make anyone believe in someone’s righteousness? The values of his world were so fucked.

Valentine was even nodding, as if she half-respected Adarvuin’s choice there.

Unable to deal with this, I got up and walked back to the carriage, and got a little time to settle down. I realized as they came back that I hadn’t made myself useful in taking down the camp, but it was better than blowing up in front of everyone about something that should be “righteous”. Master smiled down at me as she came in, and cuddled me close with a lot of tenderness.

Soon enough we were on the road again, and Valentine was chatting with Master again, this time much more relaxed, more on the level of equals… apparently acting as sparring partners helped her put the Hero in a different category than she had before. She talked more about weapons and fighting and techniques, too, and I asked a few more questions… not that I understood more, but I wanted to understand more. I had kind of not bothered in the past with my ridiculous power, but that was gone now, and Master even seemed to be studying how to improve in fighting, much to my shame… it was time to learn at least the basics. Maybe I could defend myself against weaklings, with that and a few basic spells and a concentrated mana pool.

"I'd like it if you got naked now. That's not an order, though."

Wait, what? We were walking in the marketplace in town, hand in hand, and she said that out of nowhere? I could feel my body heating up as I flushed in embarrassment, and I pulled my hand away from hers. Master smiled down at me and messed up my hair, and I stared back at her in disbelief. She laughed softly. “Don't you trust me?"

“You literally stabbed me in the back, why would I trust you?"

She raised an eyebrow. “...literally?"

I growled softly, but corrected myself: "Fine, sure, metaphorically.... I never would've made you do something like this."

Her smile faded a bit at my words. "I'm not making you do anything right now, pet."

"Yes... but if I don't you'll punish me somehow, or maybe get rid of me if I'm never eager enough to do your whim."

"Ah, like you used to do to me. How unfair of me."

What. I stared at her in disbelief.

She stared back with raised eyebrows. "...wait, did you seriously not realize what you were doing?"

"I wasn't–!" My voice suddenly stopped, and I glared at her.

"Volume, girl. We're in public." Her tone was sweet, and she smiled down at me adoringly. Her hand took mine again, and slowly tightened until it was a just a little painful.

"Oh, you think that's cruel? Should I show you a day under the life of a cruel master?" She sounded vindictive, almost eager. It would absolutely be a bad idea to agree to this.

"...no, please keep being kind to me me. Master." I tried to align my thoughts of wanting Master to just be gentle with me, soft kisses and headpats and so forth, rather than get angry about it, because she could read my mind. I was curious what she considered cruelty, but also I absolutely did not want to find out, doubly so when the target was myself.

"Adorable. And yes, I can. I'm being just as kind to you as you were once to me. Which, I would agree, we both treated each other very gently."

What.

"Unlike you, I never forced you to do anything sexual with me." I did my best to keep my voice level, as I started to get genuinely angry with her.

"True. You'd just pout or stop talking as much or start looking at other women more, or whatever, and let me know my position was in jeopardy. But you expected me to both always take the lead on initiating, and to always bow to your whims."

"I didn’t think I was doing that, and… well... it felt wrong to initiate things with you because of the difference of power."

"And yet you brought me in as support in battle without a second's thought."

"...I thought you liked fighting...?"

"You also thought I liked letting you top me. I'm an excellent actor." I almost yelled again. Inhaled. Exhaled.

"You got really wet and moaned and begged, what was I supposed to think? I'm a fool, you fooled me, you're a great actor, sure– I even thought you loved me." Her eyes, which were mostly amused until this moment despite the argument, narrowed, and she shrugged.

"Well, I certainly wouldn't put all this effort into anyone. But I'm trying to follow your example, and never beat or starve you, even if it would be so much quicker to make you realize where we stand. But even without that, I think you can be who I want you to be, eventually… with the right incentives. Which is why I'm making myself be so very very gentle with you." She squeezed my hand softly and continuously, making me aware of how I could only escape the handholding if she let me.

“And for the record, pet– every time we did it, I was fantasizing about what it would be like if I had power over you. I did need to get wet and cum to make it convincing, after all. But we’ve accomplished our goal here, so let’s go back to Mireval.” I stared at her… seriously? Every time?

“So… what was our goal here, again? I don’t think you told me that part.”

“Do something attention-grabbing, basically. You getting naked in public would’ve been great, but having a public lover’s quarrel should turn up some juicy gossip, too.”

“...don’t you care about your reputation?” She smiled easily, as if none of the earlier conversation had bothered her, and I had no idea if she was pretending now or back then. I had to think… at least some of those words were her understanding of the situation, probably? I wasn’t sure how to clear up any of her misconceptions, though.

“It’s your reputation now, pet, such as it is. And I believe you’re the one with misconceptions.” She opened the carriage door for me, and helped me up before following me in.

A large hooded figure jumped down as the carriage turned around a bend, and my heart skipped a beat before I realized it was just Valentine in her disguise, such as it was. Miravel stopped the carriage, and scurried around to open the door for her, much more eager to do so for her than me or Master.

Valentine smiled at her flirtatiously, giving her braid a soft little tug, and then stepped into the carriage, and sat down across from me and Master, her eyes flickering between us. She opened her mouth, then closed it, clearly unsure if she should say something about the fact we were currently sitting maximum distance from each other that sitting on the same side of the carriage would allow, but then fell silent, staring out the window as she let the awkward silence continue.

Maybe I should’ve just gotten naked... Master knowing I was loyal to her was way more important than what a town or even a kingdom full of people thought of me, in terms of how well my future life would go. And I was loyal… if only because I had to be. If I blurted out and asked Valentine for help, what are the odds she’d actually pick a fight with another woman who had been raised a slave and climbed her way to the top? And… who else would actually side with me? And if they did, would Master kill them? Would they kill Master? I didn’t want either of these.

But all these thoughts were a little pointless, because Master could read my mind.

Hi, Master.

I hope you can forgive me. I’ll try not to think about how I didn’t think I did that much wrong. So… please be nice to me, okay?

“Well, if things are going to be this awkward anyways… Valentine, do you mind if Sasha gives me a blowjob as we go on our way?”

Valentine actually blushed a little at that, not expecting the forwardness, but smiled a little, genuinely not seeming to mind… and given her behavior in front of Adarvuin, I doubted she was as good an actor as Master.

“Ah, no, Sir… go ahead, by all means.”

“I’d offer to let you share, but my little pet has been getting so insecure recently… I want her to know all my attention is all on her." She patted her thigh. “Here girl, come get your favorite treat!”

I flushed horribly. It absolutely was not my favorite treat, but giving Master a blowjob in front of Valentine was better than being naked in front of the entire town, I guessed. I climbed down and said a soft “Sorry” to Valentine, which she grinned and waved her hand at, dismissing it, before I climbed down between Master’s legs and undid her pants enough to get at her cock, nuzzling and licking it before she gently took hold of my head and drove her shaft down my throat, letting it sit there and petting me idly until I was getting a little dizzy, and then pulling my head off and letting me pant for a bit before shoving her cock back down my throat again

I could feel the carriage shaking beneath us slightly, and kneeled down on the floor like this, I wasn't as cushioned by each little bump in the road. It was unpleasant, but somewhat arousing despite that.

“Wow, watch her tail wag,” commented Valentine. “I guess she really does love your cock.” The vulgar words rolled off her tongue easily… well, she had been raised among gladiators, and trained as a sex slave.

...fuck, my tail was wagging a little.

It was reassuring to know Master was focused on me, showering me in gentle pets and praise as I endured her cock sitting in my throat, for what seemed like hours. Finally, she fucked my throat gently for a little while, and pulled my head back so she came in my mouth, coating it with the flavor of her cum, which I swallowed before resting my head against her thigh and panting as she rubbed her dripping cock against my cheek.

She reached down and pulled me up into her lap, licking her own cum off my cheek, snuggling me close and petting my body in a way that would be more platonic than sexual if she hadn’t just been fucking my throat for who knows how long and I wasn’t incredibly wet from it. I studied the intricacies of the ceiling tiles in the carriage, because there was no way I could look at Valentine right now.

I was embarrassed for all of us by what had just occurred, even if no one else in the carriage was, and I could tell Master was amused by it... which only served to embarrass me further.