Chosen By The Lover's Constellation-Chapter 48: Storm of Hearts, Part Four

"H-How did you know...?" Enverna asked. Lianna herself had been stunned into silence.

"How else would I know, Enverna? I’m chosen as well," she giggled. "I am The Wizard’s follower."

Lianna’s eyes widened.

[Holy shit, another one!?]

Given that The Lover was the last Constellation to select a follower, Lianna had understood that there were 11 followers she’d need to account for. However, she hadn’t expected to make this kind of progress this quickly in meeting them.

[Athene, Jack, though we don’t know who he follows, and now Al’has. 8 more to go, I guess.]

Knowing this, once again, Lianna briefly set aside her stance against looking at others’ statuses without reason, as she wanted to check whether the same thing she’d seen a few times now happened again.

Al’has Varim

MP: 800/800

---

STR: D+

END: D

DEX: D

MYS: A+

L: F

---

Traits:

?

---

Instinct:

?

[Yep,] Lianna thought, nodding to herself. [There it is, I guess. But, I don’t get it... Mel also has something I can’t see, but wouldn’t she have defended herself against Jack if she was some Constellation’s follower? It’s confusing.]

"So, how much do the two of you know about the current, ongoing events?"

Al’has left that question up in the air for Lianna and Enverna to consider. After a short moment of consideration, Enverna answered:

"Not much, ma’am."

"I see." Al’has nodded, beginning to pace around the room. "Admittedly, I do not know all of the facts myself, as merely providing information requires a Constellation to spend energy, as I’m sure you know."

[Yeah... The Lover herself told me a lot, though. Given that she gained two followers, I wonder how much energy she’s saved up over the years.]

"I was told this much, though," Al’has continued. "Our benefactors, the Constellations, rely on faith to grow in power. Faith and action. Some Constellations, like The Lover, grow in strength gradually even though no one really worships them overtly. Others, however, like The Peaceful, mainly get their strength through acts of worship."

Lianna tried not to let her surprise show upon having The Lover mentioned. If Al’has noticed, she gave no indication.

"Then, once a Constellation has enough energy, they select one, lucky, like-minded individual to represent them in the world. I’m sure you already understand this, however. No, the part you might not know is this," Al’has tilted her head. "Usually, it will happen one Constellation at a time. Every now and then, though, something funny will happen. Many different Constellations end up with enough energy to select followers, at the same time. I wonder," Al’has walked over to where Lianna was and sat on the table, a step away from her. "What do you think might happen when this occurs?"

"A competition?" Enverna asked.

"Indeed. By the way," Al’has said, "Lianna, you have as much of a voice as she does in this place. Do not feel as though you must remain quiet simply because she is a Constellation’s follower, or because you’re a child of mana. By all means, speak your mind, Lianna."

"..."

Lianna blinked.

[Wait, what? She... She doesn’t know I’m chosen too? Did her Constellation not have enough energy to reveal that we’re both chosen?]

"But, yes," she replied to Enverna, "precisely. 12 individuals, all with enough power to shape the world in their image, and only so many humans in the world whose minds can be swayed. A competition would be the natural result. At least, among those that are... greedier than others."

She got off the table and walked back to where she’d been before, by the wall that let her watch over Telvan.

"That’s what I know," she stated. "I can guess, however, that with each Constellation having their own personalities and priorities, this ’competition’ could go in many different directions."

"Do you know who else is chosen?" Enverna asked.

"No," Al’has replied, shaking her head. "I was told about you and, seeing as you’ve gotten engaged to a child of mana, decided to bring you both here. Of course, there’s also the Judicator’s follower who has been quite... vocal, but aside from you and her, no. I do not know who else is chosen."

[Dammit. Would have been nice to hear at least one more name.]

"Anyway, if you join the Starsign Association, Lianna, we will allow you to train with us. Become as much of a mage as you may want. And, of course, the offer to sell mana cores at double the market price goes for both of you. Please, consider this offer."

---

{Mel}

Mel knocked on Lianna’s door a few times but no one answered.

Naturally, her mind began to create some speculative images in hopes of deducing the reason. A few of them saw Lianna out buying some food. A few others saw her sharing the evening with her wife.

Mel shook her head violently, as though that would shove those images out of her brain.

[... I wonder if she ate the chocolates.]

Finally, she turned around and walked away.

Making it back to her dorm, Mel jumped up onto the couch in her black skirt and high socks, bringing a pillow up on top of her chest and holding it close.

That same message popped up.

{The Tyrant wishes to make you an offer}

{Accept?}

{Yes} {No}

With a sigh, Mel fell onto her side on the couch.

Tucking it into the back of her mind, Mel instead turned on the TV and connected her phone’s display to it, using it as a monitor. Then, she went and did what she’d usually been doing. Ever since Lianna gave her that kiss that burned her lips, Mel didn’t know what to do with herself.

Lewd sounds quickly began to come out of the TV and Mel lowered the volume just a little, watching on with one hand going up her skirt.

All the while, that flirtatious, easygoing smile continued to haunt her. Mel tried to relieve herself, but no matter how much she pictured that situation unfolding again, it just wouldn’t work.

Long after Mel came, she kept watching that lewd video, wondering if maybe she’d gotten her hopes up too high.

[... Forget it,] Mel finally concluded. [I should just focus on other things.]

---

{October 2, 239 2E}

"Well, I think that’s just about everything I wanted to show you all today. Hope you found this lesson on administering First Aid to be useful, though, most of the time a good healer will make it so that you never put these lessons to use, but oh well." Instructor Walker let the class go and Mel slowly moved to walk out of the class, behind the others.

A voice whispered to her:

"Hey," Lianna hovered just an inch apart from her ear, "I’ve got a bit of wine I’ve been wanting to finish. You down for a drink or two?"

"Um... Sure," Mel replied.

"Nice."

Just like that, a short while later, Lianna and Mel were walking into Mel’s room, bottles of alcohol in hand.

"Make yourself at home," Mel said quietly.

"Don’t mind if I do."

Lianna quickly walked over to the kitchen where she grabbed a couple of cups and filled them up with the wine she’d brought. Mel, on the other hand, sat down on the couch and tried to keep her rapidly beating heart in check.

Within a minute, both girls were sitting down, enjoying that wine in comfortable silence.

Lianna, however, must have gotten the idea that she at least wanted some background noise, as she turned the TV on with the remote control nearby.

It was at that moment that Mel recalled what she’d been doing before the class today. The same thing she’d been doing yesterday.

Watching porn.

"W-Wait, wait!"

She was too late though, and all of a sudden the room was filled with a girl’s moans as her co-star ate her out.

Mel was so embarrassed she froze, unable to produce a single thought in her mind.

Lianna, meanwhile, just gave the scene a smirk as she adjusted her position on the couch and took a few sips of her wine.

Mel went to grab the remote control but Lianna held it out of her reach.

"H-Huh?"

"Heh," Lianna grinned.

"Give it to me," Mel pleaded, reaching further in hopes of snatching that thing.

"Nuh-uh. I’m watching some quality television right now, you know?" 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

"Ugh!" Mel tried harder and harder until she was practically draped over Lianna’s body.

And only once she got into that embarrassing position did she finally manage to secure the item in question, turning off the TV as quickly as she could.

Lianna cackled as Mel turned away, as embarrassed as she’d ever been.

"Come on," Lianna said, "it’s okay! I get it, every now and then you gotta... tend to your needs a little. It’s no big deal."

Mel just kept looking away. She feared she’d lost so much dignity she’d never be able to look into Lianna’s eyes again.

That was until Lianna’s arms began to wrap around her, pulling her closer.

"But, you know," Lianna whispered, "those videos don’t really do the real thing justice." She gave Mel a kiss on the cheek, followed by another, and another before she continued saying, "a lot of it is so overacted I can’t really get into it. Nah, in reality, things are... a little slower."

"W-What are you...?"

Mel turned her head but doing so only made it so that the next kiss Lianna gave her landed on her lips instead.

Both of them stopped.

Mel and Lianna looked into each other’s eyes for a couple of seconds, before Lianna smiled wide and, this time intentionally, planted a firm kiss on Mel’s lips.

She had been just about to pull away but Mel held onto her hands.

"Um..."

Lianna’s smile turned into a hungry grin.

Their lips met again. Mel felt like she was melting into a puddle from the sheer heat accumulating in her head. Lianna’s lips tugged at her own for a bit before she said:

"Mel, open your mouth."

Upon following that instruction, Mel’s eyes widened as Lianna brought her tongue inside.

It didn’t last too long, though, as Lianna then received a call.

"Hm?" Lianna pulled away, putting her phone up against her ear. Mel just remained frozen, wondering if that really happened just now. "Oh, okay! Yeah, I’ll be right there. Give me a moment."

Lianna stood up.

"Sorry," she said, "I, uh... Have to go check something out." Then, she blew Mel a kiss. "Hope you had fun! Keep the rest of the wine, by the way. It’s fine. See you later."

Mel didn’t say anything that whole time. Her mind wasn’t working.

Eventually, once she came back down from the clouds that kiss had lifted her up to, she finally thought to herself:

[... I want her.]