"What was that?" Sera hissed at her as she dragged her down the hallway.

  "What?" Beth asked, genuinely confused.

  "I thought you might negotiate for me to stop working early or something, not throw a hundred fucking mithril on the desk like it's nothing. And how do you have that much?" Sera replied with an eyeroll.

  "A thousand adamantine wouldn't be too much to help you," Beth replied, again dead serious. "And we already told you, we've done pretty well for ourselves."

  "How…how much do you have?" Sera asked with a bit of trepidation.

  "Suffice it to say," Beth replied, glancing around the corridor, "That that much didn't put a significant dent in my finances."

  "Really?" Sera asked, surprised.

  "Sera. We're not hurting for money," Beth said with a roll of her eyes. "And you ain't seen the half of it yet."

  "Well, that sounds exciting," Sera said, tugging on Beth's arm. "This way."

  Sera led her down several different corridors into an area of the main complex she hadn't been in before. From the prevalence of workers and lack of anybody else that appeared to be a guest, Beth was getting the impression it was the workers' quarters. She was proved right when Sera opened the door to a suite and entered, gesturing Beth to take a seat if she wanted. Beth just leaned against the side of the doorframe, not expecting this to take long, and she was proved right a couple minutes later. Sera gathered up the things she had scattered about the room that belonged to her, making them all disappear before rejoining Beth.

  "Is that a storage power?" Beth asked as they walked back out into the hall.

  "Yeah, that's right," Sera explained. "One of the privileges of being born rich, I will admit. I have a skill that I can store stuff in, up to a pretty decent volume. Better in a number of ways, including that it's much harder to steal."

  "Wait, storage powers can be stolen?!" Beth asked in great surprise as they made their way back to their suite.

  "The skill itself, no," Sera said. "But there are people with all kinds of crazy powers out there and some of them let people peek into and even reach into storage spaces."

  "Oh, I see; I didn't know about that," Beth said.

  "It's really rare and the person also needs to be a decent bit stronger than you for it to work," Sera explained.

  "Maybe I'll get my hands on one of those one of these days," Beth mused as they approached the suite.

  "I'd recommend it, but only if you can afford it, which isn't a problem for you, apparently," Sera said. "Storage skills usually start a bit small and kind of shit, but they grow over time to allow you to store a huge amount of stuff, and in a variety of conditions."

  "I mean, I do have something like that," Beth said as they entered the suite to find Blood and Tasha making out on the couch. "But, it's not as convenient."

  "Oh, really?" Sera asked, shedding her clothes and hopping over the back of the couch to land beside Blood and Tasha, who didn't even bother coming up for air.

  "Yeah," Beth said, making sure the door was closed behind her. "I have a gate power that can be used for a couple different things. It's nice, but I have to take time to open the gate and go inside to interact with it."

  "I see," Sera said as Beth made her dress, underwear, and shoes disappear before hopping onto Sera's lap. "Yeah, that's not quite as convenient when you're in the middle of a fight and need to pull out a new weapon or a potion instantly."

  "Yeah, yeah. I can't just go 'Wait, wait, let me open my gate house and get something,' while an angry beast, or person, is trying to kill me," Beth said with a chuckle, accepting a warm kiss from Sera while Sera's tail wrapped around her. "It must be a little inconvenient to have to sit slightly sideways to be comfortable."

  "It's not that bad," Sera said with a shrug. "My tail's super flexible, and on something like this couch, I can just sit normally and let it push back into the cushions."

  "So, how did it go?" Blood cut in, having finally come up for air.

  "Everything's all settled," Beth said with a grin.

  "And what's everything?" Blood asked, quirking a brow and narrowing her eyes a bit.

  "I bought out the rest of Sera's Pledge," Beth said with a shrug.

  "Holy shit. Are you broke now?" Blood asked at the same time Tasha said, "Holy shit, can you afford that?"

  "No, I'm not broke now and yes, I can afford that," Beth answered both questions rapid-fire with a roll of her eyes.

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  "And you two are, uh, an item, now?" Blood asked, looking between them.

  "Maybe," Beth said at the same time Sera said, "Yes."

  "Maybe?" the dragon woman asked with a quirked brow.

  "I didn't know, uh, how into it you were," Beth hedged. "I figured best to be a little cautious."

  "Well, it's a yes from me," Sera said.

  "Then it's an absolutely from me," Beth said firmly, getting a very nice kiss as a reward.

  "You two really are crazy cute," Tasha said before returning her attention fully to Blood.

  The rest of that day was quite pleasant, and Beth was basking in the feeling of having done something a little crazy and a bit awesome for the rest of the day. As it got to the evening, the other three all got up and gathered around the small wallscreen, Sera and Tasha with their heads together, walking Blood through something. Beth was a bit curious but she figured she'd find out what they were planning soon enough, especially considering there wasn't really even room enough for the three of them that were over there around the little screen.

  "Everything fine?" Beth asked when the other three returned to the couch.

  "Booking troubles," Sera said. At Beth's raised eyebrow, she continued, "Tasha's here tonight, gone tomorrow morning and night on other bookings, then we finagled a bunch of time in a row that she doesn't have to leave."

  "I see. More of your creative booking tactics like from earlier?" Beth asked, looking into Sera's purple eyes with a slightly quirked brow.

  "I prefer clever strategies. It sounds better," Sera said with a small chuckle.

  "And do your clever strategies involve a refund for the week I booked you for that isn't happening now?" Beth asked with a small smirk.

  "Ah, well, uhm, I'm sure they'll refund that," Sera replied.

  "Oh, you are? That sounded awfully confident," Beth said.

  "Don't be mean," Sera huffed, though she was also smiling.

  "I'll ask about it tomorrow," Beth said, glancing at the darkness outside.

  "This place never sleeps," Sera said. "There's always people ready twenty-four-seven to help with anything you need."

  "Not a them thing, a me thing. I'd rather argue about something when I'm rested," Beth replied with a shrug.

  "I understand," Sera said, nuzzling against her neck.

  Blood and Tasha retreated somewhat early to the second bedroom while Beth finally got control of the large wallscreen in the central room. She and Sera watched a few fights before slipping out into the hot tub, enjoying the heat. Sera's ancient lizard-like nature displayed itself fully around heat, as she was quite happy to soak in the tub, not as hot as the heated pool they had been in a few days before, for as long as Beth would let her. The two slipped into the pool after a while and enjoyed the much cooler water, Beth messing with the settings a bit to dim the lights slightly and lower the water temperature slightly. Unlike with just engineering and science-based solutions where cooling a few thousand gallons of water would have taken some time and cycling of the water, the water cooled down a few degrees in just a dozen seconds or so thanks to runes embedded in the pool.

  Sera dried them both off when they eventually got out, Beth starting to realize the dragon girl's fire control was quite good. However the pool's systems were maintained to prevent bacteria and algae buildup and such, it didn't use chlorine or even salt, as far as Beth could tell. Her hair and skin weren't dried out and rough-feeling after swimming for an hour, meaning she also didn't feel any need for a shower after they had gotten out of the pool. She and Sera slipped into the bathroom to take care of their evening routines before they headed to bed, Beth enjoying just snuggling up with the dragon without getting up to anything too crazy.

  The two were up early the next day, before Blood and Tasha, as they had already started cooking breakfast when the wolf and demoness emerged. The two looked very satisfied with themselves, and Tasha stuck around long enough to eat what Beth and Sera cooked before disappearing for the day. She would be doing a full twenty-four hours away from them before returning to spend at least five straight days with Blood, and the other two, with a possibility of more. The other three took care of their morning routine before Sera led Beth and Blood out to check out another store, this one dedicated to shoes.

  Blood seemed a bit less impressed here, the wolf girl not as obsessed with shoes as she was with other things, including general fashion. She wound up picking out a couple pairs of shoes to try on and bought a few for a handful of gold before heading back to the room. Beth went through a much broader selection with Sera, picking several pairs of comfortable shoes like tennis shoes, a couple pairs of very comfortable slippers, three nice pair of dress shoes which were all flats, and half a dozen pairs of boots.

  "You're a boots girl," Sera said with a bit of surprise.

  "I understand we are largely a barefoot household when not in armor, but I like boots," Beth said, trying on a pair of very nice knee-high boots that fitted to her calves.

  "They look quite good on you," Sera said with a chuckle. "You should try a pair like this."

  Sera then made a pair of boots with a four-inch heel appear on her legs, the boots stretching all the way to her mid-thigh. Beth inspected the boots closely, making sure to put her hands on the model quite a bit as she looked at the boots. She found a similar pair in black leather with a slim silver chasing up the sides and tried them on herself, pulling the boots on one-by-one as it was considered bad form to store something in a storage item or power before buying it. The pair she had chosen also had a four-inch heel, not that she thought she needed any more height, but the whole thing was a thick block and not a stiletto, meaning she didn't feel like her balance was off or it was straining her legs or back to stand in them.

  "They look quite good on you," Sera said.

  "I don't like heels, but it's a lot better when they're not thin and weird," Beth said as she walked back and forth.

  "It's not like we need more height, either, but it looks good," Sera said.

  "Damn good. I like you being even taller," Beth said.

  "I can change my height, you know," Sera said.

  "You can?" Beth asked, not having looked into Sera's humanization at all.

  "Not a huge amount," Sera said with a shrug. "We have more control the further our humanization progresses. But I can modify it a little bit; I haven't because most people already think I'm too tall."

  "How much height are we talking?" Beth asked.

  Sera made her boots disappear as she thought. She then said, "I'll do it back in the room, if you want, but I think I could go maybe five inches? I'm not sure."

  "If it'll bother or hurt you, then don't," Beth said firmly.

  "It won't hurt unless I try to push too far, which would suck, but I know when I'm getting close to making a change I can't handle yet," Sera explained.

  "Cool. Let me buy these and we'll head back to the room for a little," Beth said, checking out before heading back to the room, once again arm-in-arm with Sera.

  They entered to find Blood in her absolutely standard place, sprawled nude on the couch and watching something cheesy. If she didn't have her necklace, Beth would have had to put her shopping away and organize everything, but with the necklace, she always had everything conveniently stored. Speaking of keeping everything in her necklace, she stored her clothes after making sure the door was shut, sitting on the back of the couch with her back to the wallscreen as she watched Sera. Blood turned in her seat and leaned on the back of the couch next to Beth to see what was going on.

  "What's up?" Blood asked, watching the naked dragon girl standing in front of them.

  "Humanization stuff," Sera replied.

  "Huh?"

  "I asked if Sera could make herself taller," Beth explained. "She said she could, but she's not quite sure how much. And she'd rather play around with that stuff in private."

  "Oh, I see," Blood said.

  The two watched as Sera stretched and flexed before standing straight and half-closing her eyes, concentrating internally. The dragon girl started shifting a little, and it took Beth a moment to realize she wasn’t moving around but her body was changing. She grew taller slowly, doing it proportionally, her legs and torso and neck and head and arms all slightly changing size. Not only that, her shoulders got slightly wider along with her hips, everything changing just a bit as her size increased. It went on for a few moments until it stopped, Sera opening her eyes and looking down at herself, inspecting everything before moving. Beth noted that the only other changes were that Sera's breasts seemed to be the same size, proportionally, having also grown a bit with her. Other than that, the tall girl had a few more scales, Beth having already gotten fairly familiar with Sera's body.

  "That wasn't so bad," Sera said, walking around in a little circling before pacing back-and-forth for a moment.

  "Looks good. More scales," Beth commented.

  "I didn't go to the point until it hurt or anything, but I did have to sacrifice a little bit to keep everything else the same," Sera explained.

  "That's interesting. I didn't know about balancing like that," Beth said.

  "For a bigger change, like altering my height by more than a sliver while keeping the same body proportions, I can't keep the exact same," Sera explained, glancing over as Blood joined her. Beth still sat on the back of the couch and watched the two, watching as Blood looked over Sera, inspecting her body and poking at a number of places. Sera looked down curiously herself, watching the wolf and reaching down to scratch her ears, getting a very positive response.

  "What's up, Blood?" Beth asked.

  "I hadn't thought of it, but I can do it," Blood replied. She then demonstrated what she meant before the other two could say anything, mimicking Sera by gaining a few inches in height, though she didn't go quite as far. After she finished and walked around for a moment, Sera started inspecting her in turn, the wolf grumbling happily at the attention.