A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

Several minutes later, Erik and Astrid walked out of a portal again, this time ending up in a small, walled-off room. They recognised this room as being the one where the Maghreb trio ended up after fleeing their initial assault on Erik.

Eira immediately teleported them back into the hall with the transference core, where they found it'd become a lot emptier compared to when they left. They weren't surprised. Naeku planned to start the exploration of this place while they were gone, and that had likely begun.

Eira appeared next to them, at the same time as Erik waved his hand to pull Emily and Elora back out of his dimension. In the end, they'd not been needed, but they were able to cheer for Astrid from inside.

They'd already congratulated her via their bond, but Emily gave her a grinning thumbs up as soon as she appeared.

Despite grinning back, obvious exhaustion was quickly slipping into Astrid's gaze. Now that the blood rush had faded, her body was reminding her that drinking blood only helped her recover physically, not mentally. In fact, it often did the opposite.

She turned to Erik. "I think it's time to get some sleep… Can you send me in?"

Chuckling, Erik kissed her. "Of course… You were amazing, Astrid. Rest well."

With that, Astrid disappeared, and he was left with Elora, Eira, and Emily. In other circumstances, perhaps this would have been a time for them to have a little fun together, but Elora's eyes were filled with excitement for a whole different reason.

"With all of that over with, it's finally time to poke around this place!" she chuckled, wringing her hands with greedy excitement. She turned to Eira. "Send me wherever Naeku is first! I want to see how much she's deciphered of her inheritance already."

Smiling, Eira nodded. As she blew a goodbye kiss towards Erik, the fairy disappeared in a flash.

Now, only Emily, Eira, and Erik were left… and Emily did look at him hungrily. "Daddy~" she purred like a lascivious kitten, hoping to excite him. She also stepped forward and gently caressed the bulge in his pants. Neither of them cared about Eira's presence. The little voyeur was always watching anyway.

Unfortunately, Erik chuckled and grabbed her hand. "Sorry, little shadow. I'd also like to look around this place a little. You're free to come with me, though."

Emily pouted… but then sighed and shook her head as she stepped back. "No, that's alright, Master… I don't care that much." A small smirk spread across her full lips. "Actually, Astrid's duel reminded me how far apart we still are. If you send me back to the dimension, I'd like to continue training my enslavement spell."

A feverish look appeared in her eyes when she continued. "I'm not sure I'll ever be able to match Astrid in combat, but she'll never be able to match anything even close to my enslavement! I want to be excellent for you, Master!"

Obviously, she'd heard what he told Zahra. Erik didn't feel any uncertainty about that, but still wanted to clarify a little. He stepped closer and grabbed her chin possessively. "I may look for excellence in my wives, but once I'm in love, I'll never let you go again. Even if my little kitty-slave wants to slack off a little, that just gives me more reasons to punish you…"

A shiver travelled down Emily's spine. Lust exploded from her eyes, yet her pout returned. "You— You can't say such things after just turning me down, Master… How am I going to focus now?" she complained. Then she shook her head and smiled with devotion. "Anyway… I still want to be as useful as I can to you."

Chuckling, Erik nodded and grinned proudly at her. "Good girl, but don't seclude yourself. I need to discuss something with you in the next few days, and we also still have your wedding gift to deal with…"

"Hehe, I look forward to it~" Emily purred, winking as she disappeared into his dimension.

With Emily gone as well, now it was just Erik and Eira left. He turned to her, hands back in his pockets. "Tell me, Eira. How are you doing? A lot has happened, and we met one of your mistress's servants."

Eira smiled at him, her cow-tail swaying slightly. "I'm fine, Master! I didn't know him because I was created after his death." A small blush appeared on her cheeks as she glanced away. "A— and I'm really grateful for the trust you've shown me…"

She looked back at him, now with cute determination. "I won't let you down!"

Erik smiled confidently, reaching out his hand to caress her cheek. It was solid, and felt somewhat like human skin, but it was like a constant electrical charge ran through her. She leaned into his touch, smiling as well.

"I believe you, Eira," he said, but then cocked an eyebrow. "But I was also talking about what you said before taking control of this place by wiping out the old sigil construct. You hesitated for some reason, but I didn't care about the consequences. What made you hesitate?"

"Ah!" she muttered, her eyes widening. But then she quickly settled down again, before awkwardly poking her fingers together, her eyes glancing away. "I— Uhm… I wasn't sure if you realised the power you were giving me. I choose to follow your orders, but I don't have to… and I'm now in complete control of this place."

Admittedly, that did concern Erik a little, but he wouldn't let that show. He preferred to trust Eira, even if it wasn't fully reflected in his thoughts. Fortunately, Naeku had the control crystal, which superseded Eira's control, so it wasn't that bad.

"Well, I suppose I've already alleviated that concern," he smiled reassuringly. He cocked his head curiously. "Although, can you control both this facility and the Runeguard without issue?"

Eira immediately shook her head. "No, Master. When you travelled to Mahgreb, I couldn't control this facility anymore. I guess Naeku must have used her control crystal to begin exploring."

She frowned, as if in thought. "Fortunately, I think I can split off a part of a tiny part of me to control this place when we're not nearby. It won't have any intelligence or reason, but it can follow orders and do everything I could do."

Erik looked curious. "Oh? And this won't hurt you?"

The sigil construct happily shook her head, horns swaying along. "No, Master! It will just cost some time."

Erik nodded. "Alright, good. I probably won't be leaving Enkare Nkai for a little while anyway, at least until I've reached second rank in my spatial affinity."

With that settled, it was time for him to poke around the facility.