"Do you mind if Lady Kazue listens in?" Satsuki asked Deidre. If she was going to gossip about Mordi, it seemed meet that his wives get to learn his 'secrets' too. Not that Mordecai would try to hide most of it, but he'd almost certainly not think ing up certain things. Some of what Satsuki was going to talk about might be sidered a bit much to tell someone else's current lover, but however sweet and seemingly i Kazue might be, the girl was certainly a kitsune. Satsuki didn't think Kazue would be very shocked or sdalized. While kitsune could certainly be as possessive or focused as other people, they teo not experiehe same form of jealousy.

  When Deidre nodded her ast, Satsuki asked Payne, "Could you please let Lady Kazue know? Thank you."

  She could feel it when Kazue shifted her attention this way. It was a retively simple matter; a dungeon's focus always included an act of will. The dungeon isn't just seeing what is in its focus's area, it is looking at the area. Being able to feel when you are being looked at is a talent most people who lived dangerous lives eventually developed.

  Satsuki closed her eyes as she brought baemories. Time faded most things for there was only space for so many memories. Well, for most creatures at least. But for memories precious enough, those with suffit power could etch them more indelibly than flesh was normally capable of.

  Of course, that could bee a deadly trap for an immortal who g on too tightly. If one accumuted too many memories, one would reach the limits of flesh. Even in her obsession, Satsuki ko keep her memories trimmed. Some days wao be remembered iail, but most wao be bined into vague memories of a type of day.

  This was a day Satsuki had etched iail. Well, the evening at least.

  "We met at a party," Satsuki said to Deidre and Payhe party itself was nothing special, a little ing-of-age celebration for a noble family from a kingdom that no longer exists. Mm," she paused to take a sip of her drink before tinuing, "I think this particur one was gone well before Mordecai had his war. The area used to be quite votile pared to what is here now."

  Deidre sighed and said, "I'm afraid I mostly know what I have read retly, here. I have not experienced what it is like."

  "Something we will have to ge," Satsuki replied. "Anyway, as kitsune were not very on in this area at the time, I was in a human guise and mingling as I sought to amuse myself. When I was first introduced to Mordecai in passing, he didn't stand out particurly, but ter that evening there was much dang to be had." She smiled in reminisce.

  "Most of that is a blur of faces long fotten now, but against my expectations, this was where Mordecai made an impression. It was just the normal exge of partners during the ging of the song. But then his eyes met mine and he gave me the most knowing smirk."

  Satsuki's grin showed fangs as the memory brought back a mix of emotions. "His eyes fshed ever so briefly from tawny to molten gold and it felt like the light might sear me."

  She ran a finger around the rim of her cup as she stared down into it. "He knew I was a kitsune of course, that was what his smirk was about. I, oher hand, did not know what he was. Which art of what made him alluring right then, the mystery."

  "You sound like you were ahough," Deidre said.

  "Oh, I was," Satsuki agreed, "but I was also intrigued. There are many different types of annoyed dear, and all those types mix with other emotions. Wonderful, awful, messy things, that's what emotions are." She selected a honey-gzed treat from her pte before she tinued.

  "He erfect dancer, at least, with dahat have set patterns and variances." That little dispy that Moriko had prompted during the feast had shown Satsuki that some things had certainly not ged. Mordecai did not feel fortable with free-form dances.

  "Which is not to say he didn't know how to cheat. When it came time to ge partners again, he gave me that parting twirl, only I found myself in his arms again. Mordeever did tell me exactly how he mahat, though I suspect it was something as simple as having great timing with a fsh-step ability of some sort. There are many varieties, though Mordi's favorite has always been the shadow step."

  "That's because he follows Ozuran, right?" asked Payne.

  "That's part of it, but it also have more reach than other maneuvers and let you move past things like walls and he likes that feature. Most far-step abilities require an unobstructed line, but take less effort and have smaller ces of something ued happening. Anyway, there is little privacy during that sort of dance, so all we really did was exge a few flirtations, such as me enting on how wicked he was being by keeping me all to himself."

  Satsuki smiled again, this evening was one of her fo memories after all. "By the time the dang was done, I was determio bed him at least once. I khat having that sort of molten gold color in his eyes suggested a e tons, but what sort of e was not answered and I was curious. Sleeping with someone is often the best way to satiate certain types of curiosity and I've never beeo bother with a prolonged chase. Usually."

  Her voice was a touch huskier when she said, "He proved to be a lover, though his teique was only a small part of it. Despite me being the initiator, he was able to take trol, which be quite lovely with someone who knows how to do it right. Which he did."

  She cleared her throat and took another sip of her drink. "We could both tell that the other was experienced enough to not need many words and most importantly, he knew when to pause just long enough to let me catch my breath. A moment open to protest if I wao, though I certainly had no desire to do so."

  Deidre shook her head with a look of bemusement. "It sounds so much like a game when you describe it like that. So, pyful." The pain in her voice was clear and caused the pixie on her shoulder to hug Deidre as best as she could.

  "My dear," Satsuki said softly, "the best sex is always a game where both people win. You both pete and cooperate in this game. Oh, you might 'lose' a particur challenge, especially during more intense py, but it means your partner was able to invoke more pleasure or desire than you resist in that moment. So you also win."

  "That is very fn to me," Deidre said.

  "That is something that will hopefully ge," Satsuki replied, "but ohing at a time. Now, Mordecai did not fully expin his nature right then and there, he teased me with hints instead. We only had a few days together before our paths in life diverged, but we ran into each other several times over the couple of years. Theold me to meet him at a different ing-of-age ceremony scheduled in just over a year's time."

  Which was a long time to ask someoe their life around if they were ined to travel at all, but Satsuki had beeertained enough to promise that she would also be there, barring anything urgent. "I admit that when I arrived, I was a bit teh anticipation. Mordecai had hi a surprise of some sort. But I saw no sign of him amongst the guests and was feeling disappointed along with a small amount of ahen I felt a light touy back."

  Satsuki ughed briefly and said, "I was shocked and startled by the touch. After all, I had been doing my best to pay attention to everyone a someone had sneaked up on me like that. When I spun around, I found this tiny, slender little waif who looked to be no older than the girl whose birthday it was. She appeared nervous, but there was also something familiar about the small smile she gave me."

  "It was Mordecai, I assume?" Deidre asked.

  "Yes," Satsuki said with a nod, "though it took me a moment more to realize it. The golden eyes helped a lot, otherwise the pale purple hair wouldn't have meant as much. It was when I felt out her aura iail that I was certain."

  She shook her head in remembered disbelief. "It brought the clues together for me and made me realize Mordecai was a dungeon. This wasn't the previous avatar being shape ged, this girl was a brand new avatar, and a kitsu that. That was a delightful surprise, but it wasn't the only one."

  Payne eagerly asked, "What else? Did she have magic presents for you or something?"

  "Presents?" Satsuki replied, "Not in the way you mean. More, she was my present." The memory stirred some of her more predatory emotions and pleasant memories. "Mordecai had taken trol during our first time together. He'd even used a trick to force me to return to kitsune form that first night."

  Fighting that sort of thing and losing could hurt and leave one dazed. But Mordecai khat Satsuki wasn't going to fight; even so, he'd paused at the right moment for her to realize what he was about to do and protest if she wanted.

  "She was her gift to me. At first, I thought she simply meant that she was encio take charge and make a game of it for a short while, but she meant more. When Mordecai had desighis avatar, her knowledge and memory had been filtered heavily. An avatar 't carry all the memories of a dungeon anyway, but she had bee with less than usual and had been brought to the party via previously arraransportation. She was fresh, new, semi-naive, inexperienced, and mio use, teach, and train as I wished."

  Deidre looked shocked. "That seems a bit extreme of a gift, even given the games you described."

  "I felt much the same," Satsuki said, "but I still couldn't resist taking advantage of the gift, and her. If she'd truly been the vulnerable girl she appeared to be, I'd have only been a mentor, but the offer was being given by the more plete version of herself."

  Not that everything was quite what it seemed. "Of course, what I didn't realize yet was that Mordecai was using me iurn. This avatar was crafted so she could experienethio Mordecai by being so eagerly enthralled by an older woman. When I figured it out, I was someset at Mordecai for usihat way but at the same time felt hohat he'd trust me to do that without going too far with the game."

  "Her avatar would have been weak in magiartial skills too," Deidre mused, "so even more vulnerable."

  "Exactly," Satsuki replied. "Now, to my knowledge, she was the only avatar Mordecai ever made like this. She's usually had a specific goal in mind for an avatar; this time her goal was to experience a life where someone else held sway over her."

  Not that the experience had sted a full lifetime. Even as sculpted for submission and vulnerability as she had been, the avatar had still been a variant of Mordecai's personality. "So I had a version of Mordecai to myself for over a decade. The first time we'd really been together instead of enjoying a dalliance. But I'd never been good at staying with only one person and no version of Mordecai had been good with an opeionship. So it ended with our first fight over my attention wandering."

  It had hurt, but at the same time, Satsuki hadn't been willing to be limited to one person and had been angry at Mordecai's words. "We met again, with Mordecai as a male avatar once more. There was no attempt at a long-term retionship in that period, but we did try several more times over the few turies we knew each other before the vilge was attacked." She'd only had six tails when they met and he'd been very inspiring to push herself further.

  "I am a bit surprised he ended up with two wives, even if it was decided by the circumstances. At my insistence, we did try out many binations and I even vinced him to go to a couple ies with me. After the sed one, he refused to even try again. Mordecai be selfish in some ways, but not here, which was the problem."

  Deidre tilted her head curiously and asked, "How do you mean?"

  Satsuki smiled. "He wants to make sure everyone is enjoying themselves. The more people involved, the harder that is, so the less focused he became and the less he enjoyed himself."

  From there, Satsuki shared more of their adventures, romances, and breakups, as well as talking about some of their mutual acquaintances.

  Gil she couldn't stand and only tolerated his presenordecai's sake. Satsuki felt he was a buffoon and an oaf. It wasn't even that she couldn't see his good qualities; if it came down to it she knew she could trust Gil to be loyal, brave, ho, and even kind. But everything else about him irritated her far too much for Satsuki to want to be around him.

  Li she adored, though she admitted she couldn't help but treat him as a bit of a toy. The eternal child was very sweet, but also easy to wind up with a story of adventure or tales of unfound treasure. Creating stories of such treasures sometimes even made them real, but Satsuki had heeded Mordecai's advid ried to be from such tricks.

  She also admitted that Li's presence always made her cautious. He had a knack for showing up when Satsuki's emotions were running hot in a bad way around Mordecai and she wouldn't be surprised if the timing of Mordecai's freedom hadn't been in part to interrupt her pn to rescue him. Not that Li would know he had dohat, but his lud unscious instincts did tend to cause such events.

  Hours had now passed, with plenty of time for food and alcohol to warm and rex along with Satsuki's tale-telling. "Deidre," she said, "if you don't mind, I would like to take a look at what Mordecai did to you. I have the start of ahat might be good for everyone."

  Zagaroth