When Mordecai returo their rooms up in the crystal tree, he found a rather iing surprise awaiting him.

  There were two women on the bed, and both of them were his wives, but her of them appeared to be Kazue. Instead, there were two nigh identical copies of Moriko lying in sultry repose amongst a decorative scattering of pillows.

  The two of them watched him with matg smirks. " you guess who is the real one, lover?" one of them asked with a purr.

  The other one added, "We might even reward a man who readily tell apart his wives."

  "Although," the first one tinued, "we might have to express our disappoi in a man who could fail what should be such a simple task."

  Mordecai shook his head with amusement.

  The two of them had really done an impeccable job. Both of their, um, outfits were new as well as identical, giving no clues there. One of them, he was guessing Moriko, had miheir auras into a plicated mess to fuse identification that way. He rather had to approve of that, it was much easier and more reliable than mimig someone else's aura, though mimig was more useful if you were trying to disguise the act of sing with someone.

  The near-perfect matg of their bodies was a testament to Kazue's growing skills, and he retty certain that she was also maintaining a spell to let her mimic Moriko's body nguage and speech patterns.

  Unfortunately for their game, Kazue had missed something. To be fair, it involved one of his sehat most people don't have.

  He decided to py along for the moment and said, "As, it seems my wives have bee corrupted by their fey titles. Pying such tricks upon their loving husband, whatever is a man to do?" He walked toward the bed slowly while he made a show of examining the two of them.

  "Hmm," Mordecai murmured with exaggerated thoughtfulness when he leaned over to sniff each of them, nuzzling into eae's o make her squirm. "No, no clue there." He was fairly certain that Kazue had done a perfect job even here, but she'd also taken the precaution of having both of them wear a mild perfume that her one of them had worn before.

  After indulging in several minutes of making a show out of examining both of them in miail, Mordecai ended with Kazue pinned beh him. Her defiant expression still mirrored Moriko's perfectly. "You know," he said, "it could be a problem if I got it wrong and got carried away with Kazue, thinking she was Moriko. While my adorable fox loves a bit h py, she much prefers 'scary' forepy that isn't th. Just imagine what it would be like if I pyed with her with the same level of vigor that I use with Moriko."

  Kazue sted a few moments longer while wearing Moriko's 'I dare you' look that was an invitation, but she broke after a few moments of him staring down at her. She shivered as her body nguage went back to her own, though she didn't ge her shape. "How did you figure it out? I think you knew immediately."

  "That's simple my love," he replied with a grin. "The two of you have very different stripes."

  "Stripes?" Moriko asked with fusion, "What do you mean?"

  Mordecai looked at her with a smile. "Exactly what I said. Everyone has stripes. It's just that most people 't see them. I, however, see them clearly."

  "Oh!" Kazue said as she pulled the pieces together with a little help from her other self. "That bluer blue! I didn't think to look at us through my focus!"

  "Correct," Mordecai replied. "Now, about that prize for seeing through your clever disguise..."

  In the end, he didn't ask anything too arduous from them. Mordecai simply tihe game they'd started. At first, he just had Kazue maintain looking like Moriko while the three of them enjoyed each other. When he felt that part of the game yed out, Moriko accepted a spell from him that transformed her to look like Kazue.

  Such spells were difficult to inflict upon the unwilling, but with a willing target, they were only a little more difficult than targeting one's self. Now he had them each do their best to pretend to be the other, which was eaining by itself, even before ating for their other activities.

  Finally, he had Kazue revert to her normal form so that Mordecai had two little red-headed kitsuo py with and have py with each other.

  Oheir games were pyed out, the three of them ed up aled into a bath together.

  "You know," Moriko said, "it was rather strange kissing 'myself', even when you had me wearing Kazue's form."

  "Well, yes," Kazue said, "it was. But, um, I thought it was a kind of fun game still." She was adorable when she blushed.

  Moriko smiled and admitted, "Yeah, it was. Though I don't think the ats are quite banced yet." She fihat st statement with a meaningful look at Mordecai.

  He ughed and replied, "Fair enough, but Kazue has to master being a ving duplicate of me first. Then you two dictate the games." Given the fire he saw light in Kazue's eyes, Mordecai was certain he'd successfully provided her with even more motivation to train.

  There wasn't a lot to do other than train and py right now. The weather was slowly warming toward spring and there were a few mroups willing to travel as the weather improved, so the dungeon was getting busier but it was all still routine as they tio gather mana toward their zone.

  Kazue had her theme picked out already. She inteo work with the existing terrain and create a 'mountain forest survival' sario, plete with the ability to make base camps and such. Spacial pression was more difficult ierrain, but with the influence of their faerie domain, it was going to be easier for them than for most.

  Mordecai had a few eaining ideas to add to the zohin that theme, but all of that would wait until after the beginning of spring and the new year. Ohey had firmed the weather was trending in the right dire for a normal springtime, they could cim the zone and annouhe one-month timeline for people to clear the o zone if they wao participate iour.

  After the tour, they'd hopefully have the mana to ore zone above the earth zone, and after that would be when Mordecai po finish his redesigns and finally i into a fully inated avatar.

  Which reminded him of ahough he'd had.

  "Hey loves," he said, "I have a request. I least one new outfit for when we head out for our training mission and then to help Deidre's core. There are some specifications that make it a little more difficult than normal. If I was just going for my minimal needs, I could wear short trousers or some variation on a long, sleeveless tunic, but I rather suspect that her of you want to be seen with me in public like that."

  That got their attention and curiosity, and soon they were barraging him with questions.

  "So," Mordecai said, "I've been making some adjustments to my avatar's different forms over time as I've resolved how to make more abilities work in every shape. One of the things I've been able to do is make my skin mildly sensitive to light and shadow, enough to help me see motion even behind me. But that requires bare skin. Simirly, I he soles of my feet to touch the ground in order to feel faint vibrations. That same type of sense also means I want my arms and legs bare so that my skin and hair feel every slight ge in the wind and air."

  Kazue nodded as she took physical aal his was going to be an iing challenge. Although seeing her husband run around in near nothing, or maybe even less, might be eaining in private, she admitted to herself with a small blush, she didn't think it was quite the look for a faerie king in public.

  "Alright," she said after trading looks with Moriko, "We'll work on it and see what we e up with." She was certain, given the glint in Moriko’s eye, that her wife was also ied in scheming together to create some special outfits for Mordecai in addition to the ones he was asking for. Outfits that would be for private eai only.

  By the day, she had gathered together a small spiracy's worth of cohorts, and Mordecai was not invited. If he was going to make a request like this, he had to live with the results they came up with.

  Moriko was going to be part of this of course, and Moriko had brought up the idea of ropin in Satsuki with all of her experience. With Satsuki naturally followed Deidre, though she didn't seem particurly ied in adding to the design process.

  With this set of peers gathered, Kazue decided that it would be appropriate to get their adoptive daughters involved. She wasn't expeg either Carmil or Fuyuko to have a lot to add in the way of suggestions, but it seemed a good idea to make sure their daughters didn't find their father's battle outfit too embarrassing.

  Satsuki, unsurprisingly, made the first suggestion: Tapping her lip, she said, “I have been to a few pces where fighting skirts were worn by men, some on this world, some on others. That might be a good pce to start."

  She started weaving an illusion to illustrate what she was talking about."Specifically, the one I’m thinking of is made of one tinuous piece of somewhat heavy fabric, a b, if you will. It is left ft in the front and pleated along the back. That should give him space for whatever tail figuration he has uhe skirt."

  The kitsune woman couldn't resist a small, predatory smile when she mentioned what would be under Mordecai's skirt, but she tinued without missing a beat.

  "Ohe skirt is fixed ih a belt, there is still enough fabric to either belt around the body or toss over the back to wear as a cloak; or even a hood. Ohat fabric is pinned into pce, he should be able to hold minor items in the folds. And, of course, it is bulky enough to somewhat obfuscate his shape as well as be used to ward minor blows."

  “That seems rather casual, though. I mean, it’s just a b, isn’t it?” Carmil asked.

  “Don’t s a well-pced b, darling,” Satsuki said with a wink.

  Carmil got a rather thoughtful expression and Kazue decided it was best that she didn't know what the faerie was sidering. She just sent a prayer off for whatever poor soul Carmil roped into 'helping' her.

  Kazue quickly moved the versation on to other ideas, though she and Moriko shared an amused g the thought of how their husband would have to tort to put it on properly. Based on the design shown, he'd be rolling around on the floor a lot.

  Moriko had the suggestion. "There are sleeveless designs fhtweight gi, and people are often barefoot when wearing them for training. I'm sure we could make it look dashing as well. Um, the pants are usually ankle length, though they are loose enough for airflow. I'm not sure short pants would work. Maybe some cutouts could be designed for the back? I think that would get most of the effect Mordecai is looking for."

  That was an iing thought and after some discussion with the whole group ing the possibilities of heavy embroidery with rge openings withitern ao create holes in the fabric that would allow air and light through to the skin below, they had a small sele of variations on the idea created via dungeon magic. These would only be patterns of course, the final clothing would o be made from outside materials.

  The idea came from an ued pce. Deidre looked at Fuyuko, asking “How much do you know of your people?”

  “Uh, not much,” Fuyuko answered in surprise, a small frown on her face. “My parents died when our house burned down. I was o at the time, so I only knew some stories they told me while they were teag me their crafts. My, um, new parents gave me a book with even more stories, but that still only tells so much.”

  It was sweet watg her stumble and blush over differentiatiweewo sets of parents.

  “Ah, so they were not warriors," Deidre replied."I have seeraditional outfits of the luponi , and they might suit his needs well. After all, they also often have tails to take care with, though you do not. As your father, it might behoove Mordecai to dress so.”

  With that, Deidre described a warrior’s skirt while Satsuki gave the description form with illusion magic. This one was made of multiple leaves of heavy fabric each other like petals, the fabric bd the hem uneven. Over the torso and tinuing onto the upper arms was a harness made of a plex series of metal s, circles, and brooch-sized engraved shields that were both beautiful to look at as well as creating a multitude of pces to fasten anything to himself that he might need, from a cloak to pouches and onry, and they offered a light amount of arm.

  For footwear, she showed them a strange pair of sandals. The very thin soles had holes in them, specifically pced so that the balls of the feet and the heels would touch the ground, while adding prote to the other parts of the foot as well as transmitting aions from the ground up through the sole to those parts that would not normally touch the ground, actually adding to the amount of sensation the wearer would be able to read through their feet.

  It was a very fierce looking outfit, showing off well-toned muscle with glints and sparklial. But once again, not really the look for a faerie king. Or not a very civilized o least. Although, it made freat mental image of a quering faerie king, especially one who was looking to quer... Kazue made herself shut those thoughts off and tucked them away for future story-writing ideas.

  Kazue we and presented her ideas using a little bit of dungeon magic. Utilizing fabric with the open, airy weave of cheese-cloth so that Mordecai could use his sehrough the holes in the fabric, Kazue created a puffy shirt.

  She then took the idea of the harness from the outfit Deidre had described, but instead made it of soft bck leather and had it tinue slightly further along the upper arms, as a stabilizer for the puffs of the mostly decorative fabric it was attached to and ending as a leather cuff just above the elbow to where the bracers would y.

  The pants were made of the same material as the shirt and stabilized with the same soft leather strips, they ended just above the knee. Sandals were also taken from the -warrior outfit, with the straps ing around the calves and ending just above the knees, in lih the pants.

  Fuyuko suggested running threads of silver and cold iron through the fabric, both to help stiffen it as well as to make it better armainst fey and other creatures sensitive to such. She admitted that the idea came to her because of how she'd almost caused more trouble with her daggers when they held court in Faerie.

  “That’s a good idea!” Kazue said excitedly. “I’ll also run some gold through it. It won’t help with any creatures I know of, but it’ll also help stiffen those puffs out to make sure they don’t interfere with Mordecai’s senses while helping me do this.”

  Kazue created a motif of the four seasons over the efit.

  First, the pants were patterned with a viif for summer, the gold threads being glinting wood.

  Sed, a panel of spring flowers bloomed over the chest, with petals of silver and gold interspersed among the delicate hues.

  From there, autumn leaves overy the arms, with glints of sun-dappled gold and dewy silver.

  Finally, across the back, surrounding the shield-shaped panel on the front, and as a siripe going down each arm and leg, was a dark wintry ndscape of falling silver snowfkes and golden stars.

  Now that was an outfit for a faerie king.

  “Well, they’re all so different from each other. I don’t think I choose.” Moriko said, reviewing the designs.

  “They are,” Satsuki agreed. “You know, he doesn’t have to have just one. You never know what the situation will call for, after all.” The group quickly agreed that having all four designs avaible was a good idea, and the gi could sort of t as multiple outfits as there were a few different coordinating motifs.

  Now it was time to enjoy a show. When they had all the dungeon-crafted samples ready, Kazue sent a message to Mordecai letting him know it was time to try on his new wardrobe so that final adjustments could be made before having the outfits crafted properly. Naturally, her core would be 'peeking' during his ges and passing on the visuals to Moriko.

  This was fun, but it was also a part of the ongoing preparations they were all making to get ready for their training trip and the small war that would follow afterward.

  The days tio pass and spring approached with both painful slowness and terrifying speed. It was difficult to not be able to take the major step in their pns, but there was so much small stuff to do that it was easy to worry about missing something.

  But spring would iably e, no matter what any of them felt about it.

  Zagaroth