Beneath the Dragoneye Moons-Chapter 626: Homecoming II

I nestled into Iona’s arms, unhappy at all the layers of well-worn armor separating us.

It was an adamantium alloy, how did Iona get it so beaten up!? I knocked on her chest.

“Open up.” I asked, then teleported Iona’s armor to [Manor] a moment later, letting her strong arms wrap around me.

“I missed you.” She said.

“I missed you too.” I said. “First things first. Everyone is alive and well. Nobody we love died.”

Iona practically sagged with relief.

“Thank the goddesses.” She said, then discreetly sniffed in the direction of her armpit.

“As happy as we all are to see each other, maybe we should do the rest of our catching up in a bath?”

“Please.” I begged. I hadn’t wanted to say anything, not when we’d finally gotten back together, but whoof. Had she been living in that armor for the last few years or something!?

We didn’t have to say it out loud. Both of us dropped our flight skills, and started to freefall through the air, holding hands.

“No chance you’ve gotten one in your [Manor] yet?” Iona asked.

“Not yet! I want one. Could you imagine?” I said.

Iona chuckled.

“A library and a bath? We’d never get you out of there.”

“You know, I’ve been thinking about that. If we ever leave Orthus, do you want to try living out of the [Manor]? The door’s a little annoying at times, but I can keep it permanently open when I’m inside. The logistics of getting everyone back in if we all wander around the city could be a little difficult at times, but it’s not like we can’t find each other.”

“What?” Iona shouted. I supposed the wind was whistling through our ears at terminal velocity. I repeated myself.

“Oh! That sounds great!” She said.

“Probably after Sara’s grown up!” I knew exactly what I was doing.

“Who?” Iona shouted back.

“Sara!” I grinned, my smile impossible to wipe off my face.

Iona was home!

She was BACK! We’d tried to meet up over the years, but events had conspired against us. Fuck events! Fuck the New Remus Empire! We were back home together again. I wasn’t going to be a melodramatic teenager and claim we’d never be separated again, I was old enough and wise enough to know that would be a total lie. But we were back.

“Fenrir!” Iona exclaimed, spotting the big lug in his cave. We were still falling, and I was starting to half-eye the ground, wondering when we’d break out of our freefall. Iona gently pulled us towards Fenrir, and I kicked in my flight as well. The two of us landed hand-in-hand next to Fenrir, who was waking up and looking super excited. I whistled sharply, and I heard Auri starting to make her way over.

Iona looked torn between the two of us, and I slipped my hand out.

“Go say hi.” I shooed her off towards her companion. I was glad I’d arrived ‘early’ - I couldn’t imagine being torn between saying hi to Auri and kissing Iona if it were me, and the nicest thing I could do for Iona was kill that concern.

Iona briskly strode up to Fenrir, and the massive wyvern put his head down. The two touched foreheads as Iona started to gently mutter to Fenrir.

I spoke out of the side of my mouth. Everyone could hear me, of course, but it was the effort at being discreet that mattered.

“Fenrir, could you swipe out a large hole and fill it with Ice? Ours isn’t big enough.”

The wyvern complied, and when Auri showed up, I glanced significantly at the pile of Ice in a hole. Three seconds later, we had a steaming bath, with a dozen different soaps and brushes off to the side on a slat.

I fucking loved[Manor]. I stripped and slid into the water.

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“Auri, you wouldn’t mind looking after Sara for a bit? Once Iona’s had a minute to relax, we’ll be down and introduce her.” I knew the answer to the question, but it was only polite to ask.

“Brrrpt!” Auri shot off her reply and was down the mountain before I had time to think. I sank deeper, letting the water cover my mouth, and bubbled out a half-hearted protest. I doubted Auri heard.

“Not the honey, that takes forever to clean out.”

I wanted to relax in the luxurious bath Auri and Fenrir had just made, but no, that’d be unfair. I’d had it fairly easy until now, while Iona had just gotten back. I started to shift things around in the bath and smooth them out, so we’d have a comfortable seat.

It was fucking wild to me that I could just… sink my hand into solid stone. Between my finger’s hardness, my strength, and dexterity telling physics to be more of a suggestion than a rule, I was able to grab hunks of stone by sinking my fingers in, then just ripping it apart. I couldn’t smooth hard rock into a smooth seat just by patting it down, but [Radiance Beams] were good for melting the rocks down. Plus, extra steam for ambience!

Of course, I was doing all that underwater, and getting rocks hot enough to melt underwater was a bit of a steam-creating challenge. I ignored the great gouts of exploding, boiling water from steam pockets created underwater. Meh, it happened. Visibility in the cave rapidly dropped to nothing, and Fenrir opened one evil eye to glare at me. He wasn’t exactly the type of wyvern that enjoyed being cooked.

The bath was nice and perfect at this point, and I’d designed it to be optimal for Iona to sit in. Which meant I’d either be in over my head, standing and half-freezing, or on Iona’s lap. I knew which one was most likely. There was just one problem.

“Hey, uh, Fenrir, I might’ve boiled off most of the water by accident. Sorry! Could I get a little more Ice here?”

Fenrir complied, and I shrieked as I hit the roof. Literally.

“COLD!” I shouted. Iona joined Fenrir in evil-eyeing me. I put my hands on my bare hips.

“It didn’t need to be the coldest Ice Fenrir can generate!” I protested. “He could’ve cracked the bedrock!” Waves of frozen condensate were rippling through Fenrir’s lair, and the steamy ambiance was rapidly turning frozen. A million tiny icedrops fell from the air, tinkling like a yuletide holiday, coating the floor in a million glimmering rainbows.

Okay, that was pretty… cool.

Actually… how did he not thermal shock it into breaking? ‘Hot enough to melt stone’ touching ‘the frozen heart of the winter arctic’ was the recipe for the mother of all broken stone. I shut up at the looks everyone was giving me, and carefully applied [Radiance Beams] to the Ice. The icebergs broke with almighty cracks echoing through the cave. A Sound Classer couldn’t have been louder. Man, somehow I was really ruining Iona’s reunion with Fenrir.

“... Love you too?” I slipped back into the water, sinking down until just my eyes were above the waterline. I added a lilypad and a flower on top of my head.

Lurking Elaine, Hidden Dawn!

I was too excited and impatient for Iona to finish with Fenrir. I knew I’d spend endless hours with her soon, but I wanted it to start now.

After an eternity - roughly four minutes of agonizing torture - Iona came over, stripped, and slipped into the bath with a sigh. Fenrir summoned a wall of Ice to block us off.

“Oooh, that feels so good. Thank you, bathosaurus. I missed you so much. Love you.”

I practically flung myself across the tub into her arms, uncaring at the wave of water I sent, snuggling in her arms.

“I missed you too. Now roll over, I’ve got some serious scrubbing to do.”

The look in Iona’s eyes suggested we were going to do a lot more than that.

We were luxuriating in the warm water, and I couldn’t put it off any longer. Iona had to know, the sooner the better.

“Hey love, I’ve got something important to tell you.”

It was a marvel watching Iona’s body in action. She went from languid, like a resting tigress full from a hunt, to wound up and ready to leap. Sleepy to sharp in an instant.

“What’s up?” She asked.

“Ithil was a mess. I’ll tell you more later. I effectively adopted a little elf girl by the name of Sara, she’s staying with us now.”

Iona’s hand grasped out like it wanted a drink. I obliged.

I fucking loved [Manor].

“I suppose after I sprung Nina and Raccoon on you, it’s only fair.”

I nodded.

“Oh totally. Far more gentle though. No early morning drills, no endless laps.”

Iona sputtered.

“That was good for them!” She protested. I arched an eyebrow at her.

“It was!”

I cracked a smile.

“She’s nervous, still scared, and there’s some awkwardness around how we met. I think she’ll warm right up to you though.”

“I don’t have over 1024 levels in [Social Lubricant] for nothing.” Iona agreed. “You should stop smoking though with a kid around.”

“Yup!” I happily agreed.

Iona got up and out of the water. She rolled her eyes at me.

“You don’t have to drool over me.” She teased.

“Yeah, but… I want to.” I eyed her all up and down, then stood up and out of the water myself. Iona couldn’t maintain eye contact, and it was my turn to smirk.

“Like what you see?” I teased, spinning in a circle.

“I knew I married you for a reason.” Iona’s husky tone told me I had to stop the conversation now if we wanted to see Sara in the next three hours.

“Now that we’re all back, we should share our stories.” I said.

Iona immediately went serious, and I teleported out big fluffy towels for the two of us.

“A proper after action report, yeah. This evening or tomorrow?”

“Let’s do it tonight, assuming Artemis doesn’t have anything come up and Raccoon doesn’t need to do an extra long shift.”

“If that little gremlin decides that work is more important than saying hi…” Iona was clearly joking, but I could see she’d be deeply hurt if Raccoon decided to skip out. I’d have to find her myself and slip a quiet word in her ear.

I grabbed Iona’s hand, teleported fresh clothes onto both of us, and half-pulled her down the mountainous road back to the cottage.

“Okay, enough planning! You’ve got to meet Sara now!”

“Yeah!” Iona looked enthusiastic about the prospect, which lifted a worry I hadn’t fully realized until now.

We got to the door, and I figured we’d knock. A way to smoothly introduce Iona without the big “surprise”! Iona and I held hands, my red tattoos seamlessly merging into hers.

Sara and Auri opened the door, and glanced between Iona and I before she stared at me suspiciously.

“Why are YOU knocking? And who is this? Why do her tattoos match yours? Also, wow, you’re super tall. How did you get so tall?”

We traded amused looks, subtly communicating without words.

“This is Iona, my wife. Our tattoos are our marriage tattoos. She’s finally gotten back home after a long trip. You know why we’re knocking, you monkey.”

Iona knelt down next to Sara… and she was still taller than the girl. Sara stepped back because, yeah, Iona was huge. The Valkyrie held her hand out.

“Hey! It’s great to meet you.” She dropped her voice into a conspiratorial whisper. “If Elaine’s giving you any trouble, you can come and tell me.”

I mimed outrage at the idea. Sara glanced between Iona and I. She quickly - for a given definition, she was a kid with her System still locked - stepped into Iona’s offered hand and gave her a quick hug, before darting back inside. Iona stood up with a grin.

“Ah, kids. I think we’re going to get along great.”