A few minutes ter, Mica finishes up with her own partner, and comes across the room with a catlike lope, her eyes full of mirth. There’s seed clinging to her thighs, and her easy motions feel altogether too sensual.

  Hyacinth averts her gaze from the lewd sight, embarrassment winning out over arousal for now, and tries to focus her gaze on Mica’s face. “Um, hi,” she says. Her gaze flicks down to the mess between Mica’s thighs again. Do you want me to clean that up for you she does not say, that would be so fucking weird, don’t make it weird —

  “So,” Mica says. She meets Hyacinth’s gaze levelly. “Your first time in public?”

  Hyacinth shakes her head. “No, no no, I, ah, I woke up with the cuffs on and had to bribe someone to get them off again —”

  Mica cps her hands together lightly, a teasing smirk coming to her face. “Someone’s a fast learner.” Then she raises an eyebrow. “I guess Aya was right about you. The first set of new transmigrators to flunk the adjustment period are the ones who are just pin too embarrassed to fuck in front of anyone else. After that it’s the ones who can’t manage their new levels of libido, who repress and try not to have sex instead of indulging.” She spreads her hands. “Not to accuse anyone present of that, I just mean to note that you need around ten of either ichor or euphoria. And I bet you’ve got one of each right now, yes?”

  Hyacinth nods quickly, suddenly realizing that the task ahead of her in the next week is… significantly more challenging than she thought it was. If she can’t control whether she comes first or not in each encounter, she could end up with five ichor and five euphoria over ten encounters and still not be able to make her soul stick. To be sure, she’d need to do nineteen encounters at worst…

  She swallows hard. “Yeah…”

  “Not to worry,” Mica says. “If you go about it seriously it’ll only take you about a day to make ten ichor. Masturbation counts for it, you see.”

  Hyacinth’s eyebrows jump. “You mean I didn’t even have to —”

  “Not practically,” Mica says. “But it’s very good practice for actually learning how to get by here. You’ll be fucking a lot of people for crafting ingredients soon if you intend to stay and make a living, since you’ll have guild dues to pay in a month. It’s not super onerous — If you fuck Avaline or me regurly it’ll pretty much cover it — but it does exist, and if you ever want to have more than a small pet bed in the common room you’ll need to earn more over and above the dues.”

  Hyacinth nods along, her tail swishing back and forth as she absorbs the new information. “That makes sense,” she says. “So I should be… trying to generate more ichor?”

  “I would recommend getting familiar with the other seven genders, first,” Mica says. “Especially the ones that lean dominant, because that’s where you’ll find your opposite number — a newly transmigrated domme that’ll click with you.”

  Hyacinth raises her eyebrows. “So which of the other seven genders are supposed to be dominant?”

  “Weaver, vixen, butterfly, and succubus.” Mica ticks them off on her fingers. “Which one you want depends somewhat on what production profession you want to go into. The ‘natural match’ is weaver, because they also tend to specialize in being loungekeepers, but if you wanted to be a void-tearing subject you could pair with a vixen or butterfly, and if you’re more technically minded, or wanted to go into embellishing, succubus might fit…” She tilts her head to the side. “It really depends on the individual though.”

  “Embellishing sounds fun,” Hyacinth says. “But so does loungekeeping. Is there any reason I can’t do both?”

  “Well,” Mica hesitates. “They level independently, so you could well end up mediocre in both unless you put in twice the hours of everyone else — and that feels unlikely for you, honestly.” She crosses her arms. “Some people do pursue multiple professions of the same kind, but generally that happens when they feel they’ve gotten to the highest skill they can in their current one and want to try something new. It’s more efficient that way.”

  Hyacinth bobbles her head from side to side. “I guess that makes sense. How much is guild dues?”

  “Ten steel, which is a hundred gss, which works out to about thirty ichor at current market rates.” Mica folds her hands together in front of her and leans forward on her elbows. “So you need to make one orgasm’s worth of profit a day to stay housed and fed, basically.”

  Hyacinth hums softly. That seems like a sustainable rate long-term, assuming that her new body is generally more horny… But if she has a bad week or two where she doesn’t want to have sex, it could be nasty for her finances.

  “I’m beginning to see why a certain number of transmigrators bounce off the Sapphire Realm,” she says. “It must be hard to have to have sex every day to stay fed and clothed.”

  Mica nods. “New transmigrators basically only have two reactions - ‘that sounds awful, I want to leave this pce as soon as possible’, or ‘That sounds wonderful, I’m going to have so much sex.’ The reality is somewhere between the two.”

  Hyacinth hesitantly sits up in her basket, letting her bnket fall to the side a little to bare her body. She feels… A little more courageous, now that she knows she’s got to full-ass this.

  “I think…” Hyacinth takes a long breath. “I think I’m ready. Let’s go meet some dommes.” She waggles her eyebrows at Mica.

  “Alright,” Mica says. “Any preference on which gender first?”

  “Let’s try the Succubi first,” Hyacinth says. “I like the name, and if it’s at all indicative, I think I’ll like them. Do they do painpy?”

  “They do,” Mica confirms. “Sure, I’ll take you over to their guild right now.” She crosses the room to another bnket nest, pulls a pair of bandoliers full of small gss vials out of it and puts them on, and returns to Hyacinth’s side. “Don’t forget your own bandolier,” she says. “I noticed you brought one in.”

  Hyacinth slips her own bandolier back on, and takes a deep breath. “Alright. Let’s go.”

  ~*~

  The succubi’s guild is a deep bck building of hard basalt, ced through with glittering metal, gold and silver and bronze. It menaces with spikes of steel here and there, giving off a general aura of power and danger. It’s very doompunk.

  Mica pushes the huge double doors open a foot or so, and beckons Hyacinth after her.

  Hyacinth follows her through the small crack in the doors, and Mica seals them behind her.

  At the end of a long hall full of stone pilrs stands a stone desk, with golden fmes licking up its sides. Behind it sits a draconic woman with long, curving horns and bck scaled wings. She looks up from where she’s sharpening her talons and meets Mica’s gaze.

  Mica crosses the hall, her stride unfaltering, and Hyacinth trails along behind her, casting her gaze around at the unexpected opulence.

  “Valia,” Mica says. “Good to see you. I have a potential new pcement for you.” She gestures to Hyacinth. “She’s in her trial period right now, but seems sharp enough that I’d give her two-thirds odds of making it through.”

  Valia leans over her desk and inspects Hyacinth with a thoughtful eye. “Hmmmm,” she says. “I see.”

  Her cws tick-tick-tick against the countertop as she considers Hyacinth.

  Hyacinth swallows, arousal and fear washing over her from being regarded like a particurly prize animal.

  At length, Valia speaks again. “Is she a masochist?”

  Mica nods.

  “How strong of one?” Valia’s talons fold together as her heavily-muscled body settles into a contemptive pose.

  “That, I don’t know.” Mica looks over at Hyacinth. “What do your fantasies consist of?”

  Hyacinth ducks her head. “Um… Being cwed up… being… branded like an animal… having my heart torn out and coming back to life… sometimes having my heart eaten…” She shrinks into herself, the confession of her rather extreme desires taking all her energy.

  Valia ughs. “I see, I see! Well, then. I think I might have a candidate. You’ll have to spend a certain amount of Ichor on healing, I suspect, but… I have a new candidate who’s got some sadist’s fire in her and has been having trouble expressing it. Having someone willing to ask to be hurt in a serious way — even haltingly and hesitantly — could do a world of good for her. Let me go fetch her.”

  She stands up from her desk, and passes through a heavy granite door behind her.

  Mica looks over at Hyacinth and raises an eyebrow. “You didn’t say that you were into that level of pain. If you had, I would've said the answer was obvious.”

  Hyacinth looks down at her feet. “I’ve never…” She bites her lip. “Just because I’ve fantasized about it doesn’t mean I’d want to do it in real life, you know…?”

  “Yeah,” Mica says. “In a world without healing magic, and without the support of… certain housepet abilities… I could see why you might stick to fantasizing. But here, even a single charge of Ichor can wholly repair your body, and you’d have a good chance of creating multiple in a session that was intense enough…”

  Hyacinth nods. “I mean, I’d still want to… not suffer about it…”

  Mica nods, and her sliver-thin smirk comes back. “Housepet abilities will help with that, don’t worry.”

  “O-okay,” Hyacinth says. “I’ll take your word for it…”

  The granite door swinging open again heralds the re-arrival of Valia. Behind her trails a red-skinned demoness, with slitted red eyes with bck sclerae, a small pair of horns arcing up from her forehead, bck, sharpened nails, and a long, scaly tail that’s covered in backwards-pointing barbs. Between her legs rests a heavy cock with simir backwards-facing spines on it. Though her body itself is fearsome, the woman inhabiting it seems almost embarrassed to wear it; rather than the bold, strong body nguage Hyacinth would expect from such a body, this demoness hides behind Valia a little, as if scared to approach.

  Hyacinth’s gaze settles on the demoness’s cock, and a thrill of arousal and fear goes through her body. If she only had a pussy, she could feel that rip her apart… though trying it in her ass feels like a step too far.

  The red-eyed demoness settles her gaze on Hyacinth, and gives a smile that’s probably supposed to be non-threatening but exposes many, many sharp teeth.

  Valia gestures to the demoness she’s brought with her. “Hyacinth, Liath. Liath, Hyacinth.”

  Liath hesitantly steps forward and offers Hyacinth her hand. “Ah, hello,” she says, “It’s good to meet you.”

  Hyacinth reaches out and shakes Liath’s hand. Despite her fearsome form, her obvious insecurity in it makes Hyacinth feel at ease. At st, she’s meeting someone else who’s like her, adrift and still figuring things out…

  “So, um,” Hyacinth says. “Mica here says you might be interested in being my domme?”

  Liath nods. “I…” She runs a hand through her scarlet hair and meets Hyacinth’s gaze. “Yeah. I… am told that here, bodies can… stand up to more…” She sighs. “I recall a world where I dreamed of hurting others, sexually. Torturing them for my pleasure and theirs. I’m not… exactly a good person…”

  Valia waves a hand as if pooh-poohing the entire notion. “All perfectly normal for a succubus, and even encouraged. Intense sensation is how you tear crystallized euphoria from the firmament; and with the help of our housepet friend here —” she reaches out and ruffles Hyacinth’s ears “— you’ll have no trouble being satisfied, I think.”

  Hyacinth sways, pushing away a sudden haze of subby thoughts, and ducks her head. “I’ve always dreamed of being torn apart in bed. Of sex that’d kill me if it happened in the real world. I don’t know what the limits are here, but…”

  She takes Liath’s hand in both of hers, and bows her head over it, low enough to kiss her skin. “If you want to explore that with me, then… I’m all yours.”

  Liath’s eyebrows shoot up, but she gives Hyacinth a little pat of her ears as well and smiles. “Alright, then,” she says. “I promise I’ll take good care of you.”

  Pink light rises in the air from Liath’s heart, fluttery and bright.

  Hyacinth smiles. “I’ll hold you to that.”

  A dart of pink light fshes out from Hyacinth’s heart, and pierces the fre of pink light Liath’s released.

  Mica sighs. “Before anyone makes any more reckless promises, perhaps you two should actually have a conversation. Or perhaps even non-painful sex of some form?”

  Valia smiles. “It’s little harm done; given the scope and context of the promise it’s nothing the Twins wouldn’t enforce already. But yes, you two should be more careful. Especially before anyone —” she looks at Hyacinth “— makes any vows of obedience or faithfulness.”

  Hyacinth bites her lip, and nods. “Yeah,” she says. “I… Yeah.”

  Mica smiles. “Valia, can I borrow a room from you for these two to chat in?”

  “You could, but I’d wager they’d be more comfortable back at your guild,” Valia says. “No need to stand on ceremony, I know you have me over a barrel on this one.”

  “Alright,” Mica says. “Then let’s reconvene back at the housepets’ guild.” She turns towards the door.

  Hyacinth smiles, and beckons to Liath. This is scary, but it’s exciting too.

  Liath smiles back, and follows where Mica leads.

  It feels like the start of something new.