This Ascent to Divinity is Lewder Than Expected

7.38 – Invite

"No pressure," Zoey added. "Like, really, none at all. It's just that we're both mages, so we'd get lots of benefit sharing our stats." Rosalie and Delta's extra speed and strength were great for them, and Zoey enjoyed it too, but admittedly they benefited more than she did. She stayed in the backline and cast spells through most shards; extra defense was nice for an emergency, but as a mage, the stats were mostly just a convenience. "And, again, no pressure. Just thought it was worth bringing up in case you'd forgotten."

"I'm not pressured, don't worry," Maddy said, though she'd looked away and started chewing on her lower lip. "It is permanent, though. A permanent link with a teammate is a big deal."

"If you'd like to think longer about it, or if it's a no, that's cool. Should I drop it?"

"No, no." She sighed. "You're right, we should. I decided a while ago I would see this through. I would hardly leave my teammates alone to fend off the end of the world, don't be silly. Just, committing to something permanent is … blegh." She turned and smiled at Zoey. "I think most wayfarers have problems with commitment," she joked. "We like open horizons." Like earlier, her eyes widened and she hastily clarified, "Which doesn't mean I'm not committed to you or the team. I totally want to keep delving with you all. I'm the luckiest person in the world to have run into you. A-And Rosalie and Delta, the team in general." Coughing into a fist, she looked away. "A-Anyway. The answer is yes. I don't think anyone could guarantee what's gonna happen fifty years out, but at least until we've gotten all of this craziness under control, I'll be by your side. I can promise that much. So we should use it."

Zoey couldn't help it after watching Maddy squirm in place as she fumbled her explanation: she scooped the other girl into a hug and spun around, laughing, the mage sputtering in surprise. She set her down and kissed her, which turned an already reddening face into a crimson one.

"Glad to hear that," Zoey said. "I'll do it now, then? Only if you're totally sure. If you need more time, that's fine too."

"I-I'm sure."

So that was that. Zoey activated Solidify Bond for the third of her teammates.

Only Astrid was left, now, but they hadn't even regular-bonded yet. Zoey didn't intend to bring the more permanent ability up until they knew each other better. She wouldn't want Astrid feeling pressured to use it for the sake of efficiency, which would totally be something she did.

The influx of magic stats was less directly noticeable than the physical ones she'd gotten when she'd solidified the bond with Rosalie and Delta, but she felt a tickle in her brain and throughout her limbs that told her something had changed. It wouldn't be an enormous boost, but hardly a small one either. And it was much more relevant to her class this time. She would find out how much stronger her spells had grown soon enough.

Settling back down in her seat, Zoey said, "This is a bit out of the blue, but can I take you out, somewhere?"

"Take me out?"

"Like, on a date," she clarified. "We get these training sessions, which I love, but I wanna do something more, I dunno, casual with you? There's gotta be loads to do in Mantle, and I feel like I haven't explored the city nearly as much as I want." She blamed that on her busy schedule. "I don't have anything planned, but yeah, I wanna go on a date with you."

"Oh." Maddy seemed caught by surprise, but not in a bad way. "That sounds fun. When, though? We're planning on heading out for another shard soon, right? Our schedule is packed."

"Today?" Zoey suggested. "As in, right now, if you want?"

"Now?"

 "Let's skip out on the last bit of our training block. Gotta find time somewhere." She tended to be pretty diligent about her schedule, but the idea of taking Maddy out into the city and relaxing with her was too enticing, especially after all the cute displays and pledges of commitment. "C'mon. Everyone deserves to be a little naughty, here and there."

The phrasing wasn't even intentional, just a joking way she'd chosen to say it, but by how Maddy reacted, the mage read into it as more than just a joke—maybe as a promise of what would be happening, at some point.

"You did make great progress today," she mumbled, tucking her hands between her legs and rubbing her knees together. "And everyone deserves breaks."

Zoey hadn't even meant to imply they'd be getting frisky during their date, but then again, she guessed that was always implied. Her track record of keeping her hands off her girlfriends was pretty terrible, even out in public.

In any case, she'd scored a date with Maddy. The question was, what should they go do?

***

Zoey met Maddy outside her room, having finished getting ready first among them.

Her wardrobe was lacking, to be honest, but she'd picked out some nice casual dark blue pants—not jeans, but this world's equivalent, she guessed—and a light green button-up shirt. She'd never been one for makeup even when cosmetics had been easier to find and use, having leaned tomboyish even if she wouldn't use that label for herself—and probably didn't fully qualify for it—but she did put on some perfume and make sure her hair was nice before stepping out. She didn't want to seem like she wasn't trying; her routines just tended to be less involved than some other girls'.

"Coming," Maddy called through the door. "One sec."

Maddy appeared a few moments later, wearing a patterned, pleated pink skirt and a white top. Smiling in greeting, she twirled, her skirt flaring with the motion. "You like? I always have to wear robes since they have the best stats for mages, but skirts are my favorite, if I'm being honest."

"It's adorable," Zoey said. "You look great."

Maddy beamed in response, then turned and headed to her bathroom. "Almost ready. Lemme finish up, gimme a few more minutes."

Sitting on Maddy's bed, she waited patiently. As promised, her date was ready before long. Zoey escorted her out. They made their way through the d'Celestin estate and into one of the standby carriages, telling the coach to head toward the city center, since they didn't know what they were doing yet.

"It was spur of the moment, like I said, so I really don't have anything planned," Zoey said. "Is there anything you wanna do? Sorry if I'm being a bad girlfriend." She laughed. "I am from another world, so I don't know what the standard for dates is around here."

Maddy rolled her eyes. "Our upbringings might be different, Zoey, but we're hardly from different worlds."

Zoey paused.

Oh.

"Uh, oops. I haven't told you about that yet, have I?"

Maddy knew about Ephy, the shard eaters, and so on, as informed about their situation as the rest of the team. She remembered explicitly bringing her into the loop in that regard. And she even knew about her memory issues. But Zoey's full origin had slipped through the cracks, apparently. As in, Earth. In the grand scheme of things, her past before being chosen by Ephy didn't matter much, especially when she could only remember generalities, memory wiped to 'help focus' by that meddling goddess. So it wasn't that surprising she'd forgotten to tell Maddy everything.

"Tell me what?" Maddy asked.

"Right." Zoey breathed in. Leaning in, she murmured, "Privacy, please?"

One of the useful parts of having an extremely talented illusionist with her was that blocking out sound—or even images—was a trivial task. Maddy threw up a sound-blocking illusion without second thought, tilting her head curiously at Zoey.

"Apparently I left something out, during that debriefing a while ago. I didn't mean to, it just got lost. I'm not, ah, from here."

Maddy didn't seem to understand what she meant, which she shouldn't, Zoey supposed. It was a rather outrageous thing she was about to tell her. Maddy had already taken all of the other announcements in stride, the destruction of the world and being chosen by a goddess arguably more momentous, so she doubted the girl would be too shocked. Still, it wasn't everyday news she was delivering.

"Not from here?" Maddy quoted, head tilting.

"As in, your world. At all. I came from a different one." Zoey breathed in, then laughed and pretended to brush past it. "I'm guessing you don't have ice rinks or movie theaters here, so yeah, you'll needa help come up with some date ideas."