They all giggle.

"In all seriousness it's pretty obvious that there aren't any pairings of us that aren't sexually compatible. I'm a universal pussy donor, Sky just wants to be our pet, Laurent thinks we're all hot, and unless I miss my guess Eelesia here can have literal nerdgasms."

Eelesia sporfles.

"I'm not that bad! But I do like you all and I wouldn't mind being close to any of you. Laurent's great! Sky's adorable. And I feel like, like I can just open myself up completely to you, Coventina."

"I will confess to being a little bit tempted to see if I can't make those literal nerdgasms a reality sometime. But yes, I do like you all, and would like to be close to you. Not necessarily sexually, but I can't say that I mind the idea."

Sky is blushing at being so bluntly described but it's not like Coventina is wrong. Maybe they'd get her a collar?

"I don't even know what a literal nerdgasm would be like would it be like an orgasm caused by talking really intensely about something sexy or would it be like having sex while talking about magic or something and using behavior conditioning to associate the feelings with the topics until just the topics could evoke a sexual response purely via the conditioning, would that even work?" Eelesia wonders curiously.

"I have no idea, but wouldn't it be fun to find out?"

Giggle. "If it did work, gosh, that would be embarrassing. I talk about magic a lot."

"Hmm. Perhaps we should find a different subject for you to be nerdy about that's more obscure and less practically useful, so conditioning you to be aroused by it would be less of a problem."

More giggling, face in her hands. "Laure~ent..."

She lifts her head to smile at him. "Well anywho, are you ready to head back?"

"I think so. I should check my card and see if my Fitness has gone up again..." Has it?

It has, but by only one point. Diminishing returns are a bitch.

Still, that's two points of Fitness that he didn't have to spend stat points on! Very satisfying.

On the way back to Eelesia's suite, he finds a quiet moment to say to Coventina, "At some point I think I'd like to have a private conversation with you about—matters pertaining to how we met. I'm not sure when would be a good time."

"Sure."

She's kind of curious how Eelesia and Sky would react if they didn't bother to hide anything, but it is probably wise to wait on that revelation until they've known each other longer.

"I'll join you in the bath after I distract Eelesia and Sky," she suggests.

"Sure, all right."

At the suite, Coventina casts, "Etheric Wardrobe."

And her divine regalia vanishes, leaving her naked. She stretches and then grabs Sky and starts undressing her. "Here, let's get this out of the way..."

Eelesia watches with undisguised interest.

She wants to be a good friend to her two most lustful party members and watching how they are with each other is fascinatingly informative.

"I see, so, Sky really doesn't like to be asked first?"

At Coventina's prompting, Sky haltingly answers. "N-No. You can do, whatever you want to me. I just, I just don't want to have... I like it when... I like it when... I like being, aggressively touched? It, it feels good, when my, my body is treated like a, a plaything? Because, because being touched feels really good, even when, especially when, especially when, it's... objectifying?"

"That's really kind of neat, you know," Eelesia opines. "Oh! Is that why your tanking strategy? Not just because it's efficient for you but you, I bet for you it's kind of a source of stress alleviation and I don't mean that euphemistically I'd just say pent up arousal if that's what I meant, I mean actual stress?"

Sky ducks her head, blushing, and nods.

Coventina prods her again and she elaborates, "It... lets me be myself. It's, not, it'd be better if..." She pauses. "Monsters are... easy. Simple. Not... they don't... I just kind of wish people who are, y'know, people, would treat me the same way? So that I'd... never have to worry about... needing to ask anyone to touch me, ever? I want you to... feel, entitled, to my body."

Eelesia nods in understanding! "I see!"

...that understanding rather suggests certain action, here, doesn't it.

She gets up, halts when she remembers she's still fully dressed, doffs her cloak and strips out of her body stocking, then happily presses her naked body up against Sky's and nuzzles her cheek. "I can do that, I think, if that's who you are in your heart."

Sky gives Eelesia a little melty smile, and eagerly lets herself be pulled into a kiss. Eelesia is more playful than ardent, but that's perfectly fine. She's content to be used however Eelesia will enjoy.

Coventina slips away while Eelesia and Sky are making out, and as promised, joins Laurent in the bathroom.

Laurent stays long enough to hear Sky and Eelesia's conversation, but slips away before Coventina does; when she catches up with him, he's just getting into the bath.

"Hello," he says, pausing with soap in hand. "...sorry, this is difficult... I suppose I should ask first, do you think we've been making good progress toward our goals?"

Coventina slips into the water right behind him. The tub is big enough to swim in, but she wants to offer Laurent some skinship while they're talking.

"That depends. In terms of how we're doing as adventurers, yeah, very good progress. In terms of actually confronting my church? Well, we're going to need to be high level for that anyway, and I never expected to make much progress while we were here in Axel 'cause I specifically picked the place for how Phanessa's religion is dominant here and mine... isn't."

"All right. That sounds like we're doing well enough."

He takes a moment to get himself settled so that he's sitting next to her, within snuggling range but with the wall of the tub firmly at his back.

"...I want to trust you," he says. "So I should probably begin by explaining that... when we first met, from the moment you said you were a goddess and my soul was in your hands, I was terrified of you. I operated for that entire conversation on the assumption that you could casually obliterate me from existence on a whim, and might do it if I annoyed you too badly. Without that inferred threat I probably would have spent several more hours carefully considering the possibilities before I made my choice of cheat item, but you seemed impatient, and I didn't want to risk upsetting you. I've been gradually learning better as I've gotten to know you, but—that's how things started out, for me."