6.02 – The Third Shard


    As Rosalie had predicted, the n went off without a hitch.


    They put as much distance between themselves and Lucinda as they could. Leaving early in the night, even the higher-advancement wayfarer shouldn''t be able to catch them. Though, Rosalie didn''t seem to take muchfort in that. She pressed hard, having the team run for hours straight. Zoey was fortunately well beyond her embarrassing starting point: hours of running posed little difficulty, as much thanks to her own improved stats as the ones she had gained from the team.


    Rosalie wanted to find a shard and enter it before Lucinda woke. She seemed oddly confident they would be able to do so. Zoey had found that confidence somewhat odd, since, as far as she knew, shards weren''t easy to track down. Oftentimes, travel was only half the problem: crawling over one of the pocket dimensions of the Fractures and actually <em>locating </em>a shard entrance could be an effort that took days, or even weeks if a person were particrly unlucky.


    If Zoey found it odd with only her superficial knowledge of shards and the Fractures, then of course Delta, the native to this world, also found it strange. She was the one to outright question Rosalie on the topic.


    "Is it thatpass thing you''re always carrying around?" she asked. "It helps find shards, somehow? I didn''t know artifacts like that existed. Has to be rare. Where''d you get it?"


    Rosalie hesitated for a few moments before responding. She frowned and tucked away thepass.


    "Actually, it''s a skill," she said. "Thepass is a decoy."


    Delta whistled in appreciation. While not directlybat-relevant, being able to swiftly track down shards exined Rosalie''s rapid progress to second advancement.


    Of course, no one med Rosalie for not exining her skill earlier, or using thepass artifact—the fake artifact—as a decoy to obfuscate the ability. If anything, that Rosalie was willing to share the details of her ss showed that she was growing more trusting of the party. Zoey might rattle off her skills to just about anyone without thinking twice about it, but in reality, doing so was a big deal. Zoey didn''t know a single of Delta''s or Maddy''s abilities, beyond the obvious ones she could piece together from seeing them fight.


    Over the course of several hours, they traversed across four pocket dimensions before Rosalie guided them to a shard entrance. Each of the strange portals manifested in different ways. This shimmering ck magical doorway was situated underneath an enormous fallen tree. The portal was two feet tall and twelve or so wide, filling up the hollow space between the felled tree and the ground. They had to enter sideways, shuffling awkwardly in the dirt to fit.


    Without ceremony—they <em>were</em> in a rush—they entered the shard one by one, with Rosalie leading, and Zoeyst.


    ***


    As with every time before, entry into the shard came with a moment of disorientation. Zoey elbowed off the stone floor,ing back to awareness with—not <em>grogginess</em>, but something close. The disorientation cleared as she blinked and took in her surroundings.


    Having been through this process a few times, Zoey ran through her checklist.


    Was she safe?


    Yes, in an immediate sense. Her eyes darted across the cavernous room she''d arrived in, taking it in as fast as she reasonably could. Several of the shards before had been of a man-made aesthetic, but this one was a sprawling underground cave system. Red veins of some glowing material spiderwebbed across the ceiling, snaking between stctites of various sizes, and pulsing in a slow rhythm. As if the red veins were inhaling, then exhaling.


    The air was hot, not stifling, but ufortable, making sweat bead on her forehead. And the reason for the heat was obvious: more even than the veins of red material covering the rocky ceiling and walls, which glowed red-hot to her senses, there was, on the far end of the spacious natural room, ake of magma. Literally. An orange, cid pond, superheating and warping the air above it. Zoey''s eyebrows rose, seeing the strange sight, but she moved on. She was scanning for danger, and the pool ofva didn''t indicate anything like that—though she was concerned about some monster crawling from it.


    Soon, she had finished her appraisal. The cavernous room seemed empty of hostiles. They were safe. She hadn''t been thrown immediately intobat, which Rosalie had mentioned was rare, but more than possible.


    Next, Zoey concerned herself with her teammates. Once again, the team had been split up, though at least Zoey hadn''t arrived alone this time. Or with a clone of herself, as had happened with the second shard. Instead, Maddyy on the floor next to her, still unconscious. Zoey had woken—if that was the correct word—first between the two of them.


    Zoey looked inward, inspecting thest important item on her checklist. Did she have ess to her inventory? The answer was, as the previous shards, sort of. Many of her practical preparations—her ''normal''bat gear and weapons—had been stolen. At the same time, she hadn''t been emptied out. Of particr note: her primary weapon, a third-advancement wand which Rosalie had insisted she buy in case a situation like this cropped up, remained, as did her alchemical collection kits. She said a silent thank-you for thest part. It meant she''d be able to make plenty of collections for Sabina to toy around with when she returned.


    Zoey cataloged all those crucial details in the first few seconds of waking. The stranger, more specific details, she had forced herself to ignore. But now that she had confirmed she was safe, she allowed herself to take in her circumstances in their entirety, rather than just the most important factors.


    She hadn''t arrived naked. She''d noticed it immediately upon gaining consciousness, of course, but had temporarily ignored it. Now, she looked down at herself.


    She was wearing … a bodysuit.


    cktex hugged her body from the neck down, conforming to her curves without an inch of space anywhere. Except, not <emtex, </em>really, but some magical fantasy world equivalent? Because the glossy ck material didn''t make the noises she would expect when she swung her arm around, testing the outfit''s flexibility. It had far more give. Nearly identical in appearance totex, butfortable,bat-ready, and honestly—somehow even more tightly conforming to her curves.


    Weird.


    And, just, why?


    Zoey brushed past that question; she had learned better than to ask <em>why</em>, by now. Shards would do what they wanted, especially when it came to how they interacted with Zoey''s ss.


    The constrictive material was oddly breathable. Or heat-resistant? Her body felt cooler than her face, which was at odds with what she would expect when wearingtex into an ufortably hot room. Being heat-proof was hardly the strangest factor at y, but Zoey did take note of it.


    Then, her eyes fell on Maddy. Like Zoey, she was wearing a form-fitting, glossy ck bodysuit, and the sight of her friend lying there, unconscious, was enough to make her pause.


    Her eyes lingered.


    The suit clung to Maddy''s body in a ttering way. Very ttering. Even nakedness seemed less revealing. It hugged her slim, tight waist and her t chest, her hips and thighs, the glossy reflection of the light highlighting every bend and dip of her body: her navel, her corbone, every possible angle. Zoey''s heart beat a little faster, seeing her wrapped in the tight outfit.


    With the realization that she was staring, she shook her head clear. She turned her attention briefly to the nearest cavern exit, the tunnel that stretched and curved deeper into theplex. Verifying one more time that they were safe, she knelt down next to Maddy and jostled her shoulder.


    "Time to get going, sleepy. Up and at ''em."


    Maddy''s eyes snapped open, nearly making Zoey jump. Say anything about the bubbly, cheerful girl, she was a professional. Confused gray eyestched to Zoey for only half a second before she rocketed to her feet, gaze flicking left and right as she took in their surroundings in much the same way Zoey had. Finding their situation eptable, her tense posture rxed, and she faced back to Zoey.


    And paused.


    She made a sort of squeaking noise, seeing the skin-tight bodysuit clinging to Zoey. Her face changed color at an impressive speed, going bright red in a few seconds t. Then her eyes flicked down to her own bodysuit, and her hands scrambled across herself.


    "W-What?! What is this!?" she cried, feeling herself up in an almostical fashion. She tugged at the neckline of the glossy suit, attempting to peel it from her skin. Nothing happened; it didn''t give in the slightest. Zoey tried the same, reflexively. She also couldn''t get her finger under the neckline, or get it to budge in any other way: it was practically a second skin glued or painted onto them. It seemed their attire had been chosen, this shard. They had no choice in the matter.


    "Dunno," Zoey said. "Some kind of body suit. Not sure."


    "Body suit?" Maddy asked incredulously. "But why?"


    "There''s not much point in asking that," Zoey answered with amusement. "We did warn you shards would be weird if you came with us."


    "I know," Maddy said. "But, I mean, l-look at these things." Her eyes flicked to Zoey''s body, crawling up and down her curves seemingly without intending to. She flushed an even deeper shade of red.


    At Maddy so tantly checking her out, Zoey''s body unfortunately reacted. She''d been trying to fight it away, but finally, she lost that battle. Blood rushed downward, her nipples tightening and her heart rate speeding up. The glossy, smooth material of the bodysuit did nothing to hide her growing erection. Worse, it hugged her body,pressing her cock as it swelled inch by inch. Maddy—and Zoey too—watched it happen, transfixed for different reasons.


    Maddy''s lips parted, her eyes staying fixed on the growing bulge in Zoey''s pants. The material was, as maybe expected of a magicaltex body suit, unnaturally stic, and her dick expanded outward, not a single detail hidden by the material. Her erection curved slightly upwards, fourteen inches throbbing inside the confines of the skintight material, a visible, angry vein snaking its way up the side of her shaft. It was perfectly conformed: thetex adjusted to perfectly wrap around Zoey, no detail spared.


    "Sorry," Zoey said, clearing her throat. "Can''t really help that."


    Maddy tore her eyes away. "It''s fine," she said a bit too loudly. "I get it. Um. Where''s everyone else?"


    Zoey was happy to focus on the practical half of the expedition, too. The bodysuit added a strangeyer of eroticism she hadn''t expected. An erection shouldn''t have been so flustering. Especially since Maddy had been warned of the nature of the shards. And it wasn''t like Zoey hadn''t already gotten to know the girl rather intimately; the exhibitionist thigh-fucking in a crowded restaurant had definitely been much lewder than simply wearingtex around each other.


    "No clue. Could be anywhere. Shard split us up—we''ll join back eventually, though."


    "But for now, it''s just us two," Maddy said, her nose wrinkling at the idea. "Dang. That''s not great."


    Zoey paused, then teased, "I''m not <em>that</em> bad ofpany, I promise."


    Maddy''s eyes widened, and she hastily assured Zoey: "No, I just meant—" She paused as she realized Zoey was joking. She pouted at her. "I meant, because we''re both mages. We''re the worst duo on the team, probably, since we''ll have no front line."


    "Yeah. It''s not ideal."


    However, there <em>was</em> a silver lining: Zoey could explore the first part of the shard with Maddy alone and get to know her a bit better. From a professional standpoint, she shouldn''t care about that, but why not look on the bright side?


    Maddy''s eyes flicked down to Zoey''s vacuum-sealed erection one more time—which Zoey was trying to fight off for both their sakes, but with Maddy repeatedly ncing at it and blushing, she wasn''t having much sess—before she faced toward one of the exit tunnels. A frown appeared on her lips, and Zoey could see her wayfaring brain kick into gear.


    "But it''s not like we change that," Maddy said. "So, let''s figure out our battle n."