Chapter 358: Waves Toward Darkmist

(Cognosticon here. I have closed the poll after most people got a chance to vote and there was a sizable majority in favor of posting the novella chapters, so that begins today. 25% of people voted to skip, but I hope to turn your opinion by the end: there's still a fair amount of monster hunting, training, and system exploration in these chapters.)

After she completed a session of cultivation, Zae Zin Nim walked from their cabins to explore the entire ship. As guests, everything was handled for them, so there was no need, and they seemed to have gotten safely away from Rosemount without any more trouble following them, but she still felt that she needed to remain alert.

Or maybe she just couldn’t accept that she might be happy for once. Her father’s cultivators would catch up to them, or a kraken would attack, or more gods would descend, or...

The vessel the elves had given them was large and sleek, built from Rosemount wood and yet strangely alive. When she stood on the deck, the timbers seemed respectable, yet at the side the painted hull almost seemed to undulate in the corner of her eyes, as if the ship swam like a fish. Massive blue sails strained overhead, providing a surprising amount of shade at certain times of day.

More importantly, the ship could be crewed by only a few sailors, so they were largely undisturbed. As far as she could tell, her qi would work fine in the control mechanisms if there was any kind of disaster. They could have piloted the ship themselves, if not for needing elves to show them this mysterious Darkmist Island.

She still wasn’t sure if that was too good to be true. Could it be a trick, after so long? A way to dispose of them? They were weeks out onto the ocean now, however, and nothing dangerous had happened. The elven sailors certainly couldn’t pose a threat to them in combat. She alone could have defeated the entire crew with ease.

Zae Zin Nim walked along the deck of the ship to the front, enjoying the fine grain of the wood on her bare feet. Perhaps it would have been more appropriate to wear shoes, but who was going to see her here? When she reached the front, she examined the horizon as if she could make their destination appear by willpower alone. Still nothing but water in all directions.

"How far are we from Darkmist Island?" she asked one of the sailors.

"Still a ways out, my lady," the elf told her. "But we’ll keep us on track, you don’t need to worry about it."

"I see. Thank you." It felt strange to thank servants, but the sailors were technically on loan from the elves, so it was best to be polite. Besides, the crew did an excellent job of staying out of the way, never embarrassing her or complaining about all the noise they made.

That thought made Zae Zin Nim flush a little as she remembered her husband and wife. Being together with both of them at once had made her strangely self-conscious, and she’d been doubly so imagining that they might be overheard by the elves. But they had been left in peace and she had gradually managed to relax, admittedly with help from both of them.

This Darkmist Island... it might not be a home for her, just a place to cultivate for a while, but she was journeying there with a family. The idea that she was married was still mind-boggling to her, and the idea of being married to two people at once...

In the abstract, it seemed somewhere between mortifying and offensive, yet when she actually thought about Kai and Omilaena, all those concerns melted away. She had known the two of them far longer than she would have known any fiance her father forced on her, and had trusted them with her life many times over. Being together with them simply felt right. Appropriate.

As if to test that ideal, Omilaena slid up behind her the next moment. The other woman couldn’t easily sneak up on her anymore, but she was so deceptively fast, Zae Zin Nim didn’t have very much time to prepare herself. And nothing could prepare her for having Omilaena’s slender body wrapping around hers from behind, hands closing over her stomach.

"Done cultivating?" Omilaena asked.

"Yes, I have done what I can," Zae Zin Nim said. "Qi is limited here."

"Well, arriving on the island is supposed to solve that problem."

"I remain skeptical. Very few elves have real experience with pure sources of qi."

"In that case, there’s another type of cultivation we could try..." Omilaena leaned in to kiss her neck, affectionately at first and then more passionately. Zae Zin Nim squirmed despite being familiar with the touch by now.

"Not now! The elves will see!"

"Let them. They were hired to take us on our honeymoon voyage, so what can they expect?"

"They can expect us to maintain a level of decorum and - oh!"

Zae Zin Nim let out a gasp as Omilaena began to caress her more aggressively. The other woman had such slender, skillful fingers...

"How can you want that again?" Zae Zin Nim demanded in a whisper. "We did plenty last night, you should be satisfied."

"That was many hours ago," Omilaena told her, barely pulling back, "and you were cultivating by yourself for so long..."

"You are insatiable."

"No, no, the problem is that you teased me for literal years. You can’t blame me for wanting more of a taste now that I have the chance."

Even though Zae Zin Nim had captured her wife’s hands, the other woman’s mouth was still free. Her lipstick left a tingling sensation on her neck, and suddenly she switched from kissing to licking. Zae Zin Nim gasped and then pressed her lips together firmly before she could moan. None of the elven sailors were looking at them, but she felt as though the entire world was staring.

"I’m just being a dutiful cultivator," Omilaena said, her lips brushing against her skin with each word. "We’ve all advanced so much, we can gain a lot more strength from dual cultivation before we hit diminishing returns. Spending time together is just the responsible thing to do."

"Even if that was untrue, you would come up with another excuse." Zae Zin Nim extricated herself and retreated back down the ship, even though she felt surprisingly cool without her wife’s touch. "Besides, I have work to do with mana exercises and-"

"Oh, but you know the best source of mana on this ship." Omilaena was beside her in a second, this time just sliding her hip against hers as they walked. "Why don’t we go get Kai? I’m not being selfish here."

"We cannot spend all our time together in bed!"

"We can try!"

Zae Zin Nim moved faster as she headed down the staircase to the lower levels for at least a modicum of privacy. As much as her wife’s teasing embarrassed her, the warmth sank from her cheeks through her body. Sometimes she wished that Omilaena wouldn’t tease so much or so aggressively, but if the other woman ever stopped teasing, Zae Zin Nim would have been disappointed.

"Oh, Zin Nim, have you tired of me already?" Omilaena pressed against her back abruptly and hung there, as if she could drag them both down to the floor right there. Her weight alone wasn’t too much for Zae Zin Nim, given all her physical strengthening, but she still stumbled from the surprise and the feeling of that slender body against hers...

"Don’t be absurd! Just because someone isn’t as needy as you doesn’t mean th-"

Omilaena let out an affected sniff. "That’s all I am to you, isn’t it? A fallen woman to be discarded whenever you’re done with her..." And then the other woman's hands wrapped around her again, growing bolder and bolder.

Despite herself, Zae Zin Nim was responding and she knew where this was going to end. But then she finally spotted her salvation: Kai was walking down the corridor in the opposite direction. He was bare-chested with his skin shining as if he’d just bathed, and the sight of his column of muscle was a relief.

"Kai, help me!" Zae Zin Nim called. "The beast cannot be sated!"

"Oh husband, you have to help!" Omilaena continued teasing, holding her back. "Our wife is neglecting me, it’s horrible, horrible!"

Kai laughed and bounded to them in a few steps, then wrapped her up in an embrace. As soon as Zae Zin Nim was pressed against his firm chest, secured by those arms, the heat inside her twisted: the anxious edges smoothed away and yet the excitement remained and sank lower.

"No games now," Kai said, holding her back gently. "Do you actually want this, or do you want me to make Omilaena back off?"

"I just want... backup," Zae Zin Nim said. She flushed as she spoke, yet didn’t feel ashamed. "Don’t let her gang up on me."

"It was one on one before you brought him in." Omilaena stood just beside them, lips twisted in that smirk, with one hand on her hip. "You’re the one bullying me."

"Nonsense. You have far more experience than I do when it comes to such things. This is only fair."

Kai reached out and pulled Omilaena into the embrace, tugging her against them both. The two kissed with an intensity that made Zae Zin Nim shiver, especially as she saw Omilaena’s tongue slip out between their lips. Yet when the woman turned on her, she was far less aggressive, just kissing her passionately. Zae Zin Nim’s final tensions melted away and she kissed back, melting into the two of them.