A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

After Elora returned to the dimension, Erik and Naeku reached the outside of the palace. Here, atop the steps leading to it, was their family. Ankhur, as well as his wives, parents, and sister Leila, were there, but so were Emily and Runa. Enkai was there as well, surprisingly accompanied by his son, Leki.

The only ones of Erik's family missing were Emma and Alice, both of whom had secluded themselves in his dimension, anticipating breakthroughs. Truthfully, the speed by which Alice was improving shocked her adoptive parents. Especially Elora, who had more knowledge of these things, knew this was unusual, even with the young girl's advantages and nearly singular focus.

But they had a different focus right now.

As soon Erik and Naeku arrived there, Erik waved his hand to pull Astrid out of the dimension and have her join them. After their night together was over and Erik went to find Naeku, Astrid had put her armour on. As soon as she appeared, she stretched and groaned.

Everyone turned to watch the newcomers and greeted them with nods, smiles, and grins. Emily, however, bounded up to Erik, collar-ring bobbing up and down, until she crashed into his body and pressed her lips against his.

Smirking, Erik responded in kind. They kissed under wry, jealous, and excited eyes until they separated a few seconds later. "Good morning, Master," Emily grinned playfully, before whispering in his ear, her body wriggling a little. "You still have to punish me… I'm aching for you to put my wedding gift on me~"

Erik felt himself twitch, but forced himself to move on. Now wasn't the time. He spanked her ass and gently pushed her off with a smirk. "We'll do it soon, you little minx. I also have something to discuss with you."

"Oooh~ ominous," Emily giggled, but still stepped away. She didn't seem particularly worried.

With that solved, Erik was about to address the group, when Astrid and Naeku also pressed their lips against his, one after the other, thus establishing their own claims to him. Since they were among family, Naeku quickly swapped her form back and forth during this.

Meanwhile, Erik watched a great many different expression on everything, and revelled in each of them.

"Anyway…" he finally grumbled with pride, immediately acting as if nothing had happened. "Have we found anything yet?"

His mother smirked proudly, giving him the thumbs up. Enkai glared and Leila looked jealous, but Ankhur and his other family simply smirked wryly.

"Nothing yet," Ankhur finally answered, knowing it was useless to admonish his daughter over this behaviour. "We've got a few tens of second-rankers out there right now using those omnisense sigil stones, but we've only barely covered ten percent of the city in a few hours. We're still waiting on more sigil stones, but it's going to take a while."

Erik nodded and looked out over this beautiful city of stone buildings and spires. He knew his three servants, Nora, Anne, and Seraphina were out there as well right now. Kudzai and Nobuntu, however, had been asked to remain in their rooms during this operation.

Although he didn't know what secrets this city still hid, he vowed to discover, as well as use, them.

It took a mere moment for him to turn to Ankhur with a grin. "Well, I don't need a sigil stone to use omnisense, so I'll get out there right now. I'm sure you don't need my help to coordinate from here, Ankhur?"

The older werepanther glanced at Erik and nodded. "Do as you wish. We'll coordinate over sigil stone."

Erik then looked at Astrid, Naeku, and Emily with a cheeky grin. "I know it would be more efficient to send you three out on your own, but I'd love to make this an outing with my wives…"

Unsurprisingly, they all quickly agreed. Just as the four of them were about to walk into the city, however, Ankhur stopped them. "Wait! Come talk to me for a moment, Naeku."

"Hmm?" she hummed and looked at her father, then glanced at Erik. The latter nodded calmly. "We'll wait over there," he said, and walked away a little with Emily and Astrid.

As the three of them amused themselves with each other for a moment, Erik glanced over at Naeku and Ankhur. They'd stepped aside for a moment, and the latter had covered them in omnisense to protect against prying eyes. Not that Erik felt the need to pry… he knew Naeku would tell him if it was important.

For a few minutes of time, their mouths moved silently. Naeku appeared calm or happy the entire time, while Ankhur's face went from worried, to relaxed, to shocked with a glance towards Erik. Finally, Naeku walked back over to her husband and sister-wives, a calm smile on her werepanther lips.

"Everything good?" Erik asked, an eyebrow cocked, leaving it completely up to her how much she wanted to share.

Naeku nodded happily, "Yeah, don't worry!"

Then she shrugged, "He just wanted to talk about this religion thing, and I promised I'd keep an eye on it."—she turned a little embarrassed—"I… also told him the thing we thought would be a problem isn't a problem after all… How happy does he look…?"

Snickering a little, Erik glanced over at Ankhur and could see him trying hard to suppress a smile and maintain the facade of a stern king.

"Very happy," Erik answered.

They continued walking, but Astrid and Emily naturally looked incredulously at the both of them. "Hey, hey!" Astrid urged, poking Erik's side. "There's no secrets in this family, right?! What's all this about?!"

Emily, though silent, looked with intense amusement at Naeku, eager to hear more.

Erik chuckled and shook his head. "I'll tell you both about the religion, but the other thing is up to Naeku."

Naeku became increasingly embarrassed… but still shook her head with a pout. "Thank you, but… I'll tell them." She gulped. "I like this no secret thing, and I should do my part, I guess…"

Thus, they started wandering around the city as Erik filled them all in on everything he knew about Nora and Anne's religion, while Naeku told her sister-wives about the sadness she hid over thinking she'd be unable to have children with Erik.

Much to her embarrassment, the conversation also quickly devolved into discussing the fetish part of her wishing to be impregnated, although no one could tell how they ended up on that topic…

Yet Erik could feel joy behind the embarrassment. In the end, Naeku had been a little isolated for most of her life, and he realised this was the first time she could truly play around with equals… even if it involved teasing her.

For the rest of the day, the city was a hotbed of activity. An expanding search grid spread wider and wider. Some minor new sigils and other magic things were found, but nothing worthy of note. In fact, Erik and Elora were suddenly a little suspicious about the lack of such things.

Did these powerful city builders leave nothing behind, or… was it all down in those cubes?

But, eventually, they did find something more interesting, right at the very end of the search…