The dragon's harem

The morning arrived at its own pace, and the sun slowly emerged from beyond the horizon, casting its warm light upon the frozen Arctic Lands.

Haru opened her eyes between Arad’s arms and remained there for a few seconds. It didn’t matter if her eyes were closed or open; she still couldn’t see anything.

Last night was quite painful and pleasurable at the same time. Even now, she was still awfully sore, but she itched for more. But sadly, they had to get up and move.

She reached with her hand and tapped him on the head. “Wake up. We need to go.”

He yawned, opened one eye, and looked down. “It it morning?” He could see Haru asleep on top of him, covered by the warm fur.

She nodded and sat up, pushing the fur hide away, then stretched her arms and back. “It should be morning. I always wake up at dawn.”

Arad sat beside her and looked at the door, barely managing to get up and take a few heavy steps forward. “I’ll take a look.”

He approached the door, held the handle, and looked back. In that moment, Haru wrapped herself in the fur hide to hide from any stray cold gust of wind that might come in.

What greeted Arad was a dark sky, a freezing cold wind, and a loud roaring blizzard that seemed to be calming down. It was almost down, but not quite there yet.

“Still a bit of time left.” He closed the door and headed into their pack. From it, he pulled a large pot and extended his hand outside to scoop a bit of snow.

They didn’t have any water left, so they had to melt a bit of snow to get it. Looking back, Arad quickly found that the flame had died out, only leaving a bed of hot embers in the hearth.

He threw a few logs in and ignited them with a simple fire spell, then threw a glance at the chimney Gojo fitted into the house. Without it, they would’ve suffocated inside.

As the snow melted and warmed up, he brought the pot to the bed’s side and helped Haru find it without burning herself. There, they washed their faces and got ready for the day.

He looked at her for a moment, then asked. “How was last night?”

She smiled. “Amazing, best time I had in a while.” She reached toward him for a morning kiss and then looked down. “I want to do more…”

“We still got some time.” He pulled her closer, and she giggled. “Then, unlike last night. I’ll take the lead.” Last night was quite exhausting and painful for her, but now she wanted to have some fun of her own.

****

Gojo emerged from the stone house and looked outside, finding that the daunting blizzard had long since faded away, leaving countless mounds of snow covering everything.

It was still freezing cold, but at least a bit better in the sunlight. He then looked inside and saw Liliana putting her clothes on. Noticing his gaze, she smiled. “What? Want more?”

Gojo chuckled. “More? Sure, but the sun is up and we can’t stay here.” He walked inside and rummaged through their pack for his heavy clothes.

Mumbling curses, she stood and put her feet on the ground, quickly shouting at the top of her lungs, cursing the frigid cold floor. She felt like her toes were going to tear apart.

“Gojo! You could’ve made the floor warm, right?” She glared at him, and he laughed. “I could’ve, but it would’ve been a waste of magic. Don’t walk barefoot; at least put on something.” He stood and handed her some clothes. “As much as I love seeing you naked. I don’t love seeing you naked in the cold.”

She started at him for a second, then smiled. “Yeah, right.”

*****

“We can go out, but it’s still a bit too cold.” Arad turned around and looked at the bed, where Haru sat with a satisfied smile.

She shifted her head, turning it toward his voice. “I see. Then I’ll pray to Asmodeus and see about getting her help. In the meantime, get us some firewood.”

He nodded and left, leaving her alone inside the stone house. She took a deep breath and looked at her hellish pendant.

“Curse Of the Restraint. To think that useless curse could be helpful here.”

Haru’s innate curse was that of restraint, allowing her to manipulate any other power she has besides her innate curse through restraint.

If she were a fire mage, fire won’t burn her, and she could wield it in battle. So if she wanted to use her curse, she would have to turn off that fire resistance and bask in her own flames, burning herself. For each hour she spends enduring her own flames, she’ll get a second of absolute control.

And since she is a Seer, she had to intentionally seal her own fate and make sure it’s in a situation that she would want to use her power and escape.

In simple terms, if you want anything, you have to give it up first. There is nothing Haru hates more than being blind and not using her power to orient herself. While her clairvoyant abilities don’t allow her to see, she can sense the coming future, like sounds and touch. She always knows what someone is going to say before they speak, and if they are going to touch her before they do.

But… she gets horrified when that power doesn’t work, when she can’t know what’s coming. So last night she turned her power off, and on top of that asked Arad to get rough with her. So, as a fire mage getting burned by flames, turning her power off let her burn in the inevitable future she created for herself.

Now, in exchange for those two hours, she has two seconds of absolute control over her power. And she’ll be storing that power for emergencies.

Closing her eyes, she could hear a voice inside her head, Asmodeus’s voice.

[If you were any other priestess, I would’ve dragged you back to hell and locked you in a cage.]

Haru smiled.

“I have not said anything yet.”

[I’ll deal with Amaterasu’s cost, but you’ll have to deal with Eris’s cost on your side. You know that the price for her power is death? A brutal and bloody end?]

Eris is the divine goddess of murder, so such a price for getting her power was expected. But… Haru isn’t just anyone.

“I do not need to use her murder powers; I just need her divine magic. We’re stuck in Limbo, and I suspect Entropy is keeping a tab on all of the gods, at least the notable ones. Eris shouldn’t be included in that list as a new goddess.”

[Not my problem. Know that for anything Eris asks for, I’ll be paying a hundred times the price to Amaterasu. Conserve your magic for the coming day, because you won’t get any until the switch is done.]

Haru sighed and stood. Arad should be coming back soon, and she had to get ready. The daytime here is short, and so they couldn’t waste it.

Taking a deep breath, she could feel her power surging, amplified by her active curse like a resonance. The twisting fabric of fate lies open between her fingertips, and one pull could change everything.

A thousand futures, and now, she didn’t need to act personally to see and use that future. She can just pick one.