Just Some Playful Banter

The only thing more surprising than the sneak-attack-level combat test was how well the follow-up magical final exam went. There was no denying the fact that, though Rionriv may have had her faults when it came to cheering people up and lying, she did have a knack for studying with a hidden agenda. She had masterfully steered our late-night sessions towards the topics most likely to appear on the exam, and did so without cheating. So, with her help, I nailed a solid seventy-five percent on the written test.

But that wasn't all. Thanks to our pushing Sharzin towards more advanced classes, she began putting in actual effort and even passed her final with a ninety-six percent. Aesandoral was even showing improvement academically. Snoozing aside, she managed to score an even seventy on her test. And, of course, Rionriv came out on top with a perfect score.

Luckily for us, since we opted for the trial-by-combat final, our academic tests were averaged across the entire tetrad. This meant that, with our perfect score in the combat challenge, we earned an A on our group final. And since it was better than anything we had planned for, it was cause for celebration.

Lounging in my apartment, one part tipsy and the other stoned, I looked over my tetrad with an inebriated smile. Fast food wrappers and bottles of liquor littered the floor from the celebratory meal we had just shared. The emotions of the day's events had finally begun to settle, and judging from the swelling in my chest that connected me with my companions, it felt as though we were all equally content in that moment.

“You know,” I muttered with a drunken sigh before leaning back in my corner’s beanbag chair. “I never imagined this. And I can imagine a lot!”

“What?" Aesandoral asked from her seat on the bed, where she was currently fiddling with the window, trying to find a new image to enjoy.

I eyed the elf lustfully, biting slyly at my lip as I drank in the shape of her glutes. The way they filled out the leather pants of Aesandoral's combat attire and how her shirt lifted ever so slightly with her stretch, revealing the small of her back. Beginning to imagine myself nestled up behind her, our hips pressed together, I quickly turned away before gilding myself.

“T-that," I stammered as I tried to control my lechery. "I’d be in school again and a part of a triop!”

“Oh, but you could imagine being transported into a world of your own creation?” Rionriv injected from her Papasan chair, drawing my attention in. “And technically you’re still not a part of a triop. You’re in a tetrad. Keep up, oracle.”

Now fixated on her, I watched as her feline ears perked up and the tiger tail swished drunkenly. Catching my glance, Rionriv gave me a playful wink as she stuck her tongue out in a little blep. Immediately, my heart fluttered as I began to fantasize about kissing her. It was hard to tell if she first noticed the expression on my face or felt my racing heart through our newfound connection. But immediately after realizing what was happening, the sorceress blushed and looked away.

Clearing my throat, I also looked away from her towards Sharzin as she carefully walked atop the mattress behind Aesandoral. I locked eyes with the rogue and the oversized hoodie of mine that she wore.

“Well, there were times I would escape the reality of my world to the Esseria of my mind," I explained to everyone. "So, I like to think I’ve been walking this world for as long as Phyllis.”

“Yeah, but it's better now with us here, right?” Sharzin now cut in as she reached the headboard and began to rummage once more through my private liquor stash behind the poster over my bed. "We make things more interesting."

“Oh totally,” I grabbed the pillow I was resting my head on and tossed it at the thief. “I just love being humiliated in front of the student body on a historic debut of the second-ever tetrad.”

“Hey,” Sharzin replied as she caught the pillow and threw it under her before plopping to the bed with a bottle of amaretto in hand. “At least they'll never forget Ishara, the nude goalkeeper.”

"Gyaaah—"

Rubbing at my face as I remembered the harrowing ordeal in vivid detail, I felt the cringe of the moment flooding my body. There was nothing I could do about it now, at least not without the intervention of Gods to wipe everyone's collective memories. And since that was never going to happen without an author writing it into existence, I had no choice but to live with the trauma. So, with a shake of my head as though it would knock the feelings free, I looked to Rionriv, who had been gazing at me the whole time. Though it was only for a second before her expression hardened, I could have sworn I saw lust in those sapphire eyes.

“Don’t look to me for help, goalkeeper.” The sorceress scoffed. “Why don’t you invest in more resistant clothing?”

“I wasn’t—uhg, stop," I answered, throwing my hands up. "Enough with this. New topic! While you were all on your secret mission to enroll me, did you discuss Solstice Break at all?”

“Uhh—” Rionriv hummed as she shifted on the chair and brought her feet to the ground. 

The sorceress adjusted herself, leaning towards me slowly. She proceeded to beckon me closer with an alluring flick of her finger and a smirk on her lips. Hesitantly, I approached, doing my best to keep my racing heart under control as the scent of her floral perfume began to intoxicate me. I waited as she continued to approach, her face reaching the side of my head. My heart pounded against my chest as I felt her breath on my ear. Experienced the warmth of her soft lips tickling the side of my head. And, just as I began to feel myself succumbing to the moment, she loudly yelled in my ear.

“No.” Rionriv bellowed before laughing and leaning away. “That’s your job, newbie.”

"Gyaah!" I bellowed, clutching at my racing while also fiddling with my ear. "Rude, Ri! Too loud!"

But she did little more than smile as she rested back into her chair before igniting another fyreweed spliff. With a drag, she exhaled a cloud of smoke into the room and eased herself into a comfortable position. All the while, she watched me, smiling in a way that made my heart flutter and, yet, also irritated me.

"What type of job do you want?"

"One that gets us school credit," Rionriv answered. "A lot of it."

"A good one," Sharzin followed before taking a swig of the bottle. "That pays well."

"Oooh, money!" Aesandoral exclaimed as she finished fiddling with the window and plopped herself down flat on the bed. "I like money. Definitely one with more money!"

I watched as the elf extended her hands wantingly to her sister, who passed the lit cigarette towards her without question. Aesandoral then looked my way and, after exhaling a billowing cloud of smoke, passed the spliff over. Twiddling the stick between my fingers for a moment, I eventually pulled the fyreweed into my lungs. I held it as I thought. Thought about what to do and where to go from there. After all, I needed to get the course credits now too and doing it with four people instead of three changed things academically. The pungent smoke stayed within me until the world began to spin and, as I released it, my ideas started to flow.

What followed was an hour of discussion where I put forth several jobs that I had been concocting for them to do. I asked if my companions wanted to see the Elven City of Faeline and fight the Earhkalen in the Emerald Dark Forest. Unfortunately, this quest was a hard no from Aesandoral, who had no interest in dealing with the elves of the south. At that, I quickly transitioned to asking if they wanted to adventure around the Port of Davones, which was both an oceanic and underground lake port. There we would fight the Silkmager on the westernmost isle. But at that, none of the triop seemed interested in committing to anything remotely dealing with underground combat.

This would go on and on until, eventually, I had no choice but to ask for more time to think. Taking a step back from the conversation, we reconfirmed the plan to retake Rionriv's fallen home, the Cliffs of Serenity, in the summer. With this, I once again found myself explaining that we would need to become a lot stronger before then. And, while everyone said they understood, I had begun to doubt that they truly did. After all, the elemental at the heart of the razed city had been powerful enough to defeat Rionriv's parents and more, who I remembered writing as quite strong. More than that, with me now needing to focus more on schooling, the trick would be finding the time to go questing over the year to gain the experience needed to combat it. But that was a later problem.

Then there was the issue of me now being a 'Sausage King' of a hamlet. This came with the responsibility of maintaining Tahvinstead’s continued development with fresh ideas and refilling the coffers to pay the people helping it grow into the city of tomorrow I dreamed it to be. Though we were still doing well on funds, if I put too many more irons in the fire, we were eventually going to get burned financially. This meant that I also had to agree with Aesandoral that, in this instance, money was good.

As the discussion dragged on long enough that a second meal was needed, we all agreed that, at the very least, we would stop by Tahvinstead until after the solstice. It had been a few months since we were last there, and we were all excited to see the town’s progression. That and the status of the other projects, like our group manor, which we had been promised would be ready around this time.

It was also time to take our various dire pets to their new home and show them around the land that would become theirs to wander and protect. Seeing as they had begun to reach sizes that could no longer comfortably fit in my tiny apartment, it just made sense to give them more room to roam. That, and Phyllis’s mall had become quite the zoo of magical animals since the students of Lich House—the dormitory in Phyllis’ attic—kept adopting every tameable beast they discovered. And the last thing anyone in our group wanted was to be blamed for any of our beasties eating one of theirs.

So, with a goal in mind, we continued our banter late into the night. We planned for a pit stop at the Thantossa Residence in the morning to pick up some of the girls' items and, as such, were prepared to leave the shoppe no later than mid-morning. Which would be just enough time for me to get Phyllis started on something for us before we left...