This is the kind of thing that just sort of happens, without any forethought, which is why it happened because of Rin.

She found me at my door at the Crown after I got home from the marketplace, in full armor, short swords tucked away, hair tied back in its usual manner. She eyed me like she eyed a passage that she might need to mark on the map.

"Mira is downstairs," she announced.

"Right."

"And Sable arrived during my wait there."

I absorbed the sequence of events for a moment, realizing, "You made the introduction to Sable?"

"She made the introduction to me." Rin remained impassive. "She is straightforward. I admire that."

There wasn’t much more that I could really say in response to such a rapid series of events, even one spanning only ten minutes, starting from when I first entered through the Crown’s entrance. "And now all three of you are downstairs?"

"They left cups set out. We are waiting."

Sena’s table that they had arranged themselves at was positioned in the back corner, whether by chance or by her assessment of the situation, but I had learned never to think things were coincidental where Sena was concerned. Mira had her crossbow propped up against the wall next to her, as she always did. Sable had ink under her left hand, just like always, and was studying the table grain with the level of intensity she applied to everything she studied face-to-face. They were not saying anything when I entered, but there wasn’t an awkwardness to their silence; it was the silence of people who knew they were all worth the company of the others.

"She took her time coming down here," said Mira.

"She got up there only thirty seconds ago," I countered.

"Maybe Rin took her time coming up here too," said Mira.

Rin sat down without saying anything else. I sat down. Sena put a cup down in front of me without having been asked.

We spent some time talking. And this, again, is something I’m not really going to get into in any kind of operational sense, because it was neither. The talk took place around a table, between four individuals, and it moved like a regular conversation does, not a staged performance. Mira raised the issue of the Floor 7 geometry problem because it was pretty much always raised by Mira in every conversation she took part in. Rin had an idea about the radial line of the left branch that she was holding back. And then Sable listened to what the others were saying intently and asked two questions that were more valuable than anything else I’d suggested, if I may say so myself.

And sometime after that, Sena stopped making rounds to our table.

It was Mira, however, who put it into words, and once again, this wasn’t unexpected at all. After all, this was one of Mira’s defining traits: she tended to say things out loud.

She glanced at me, Rin, then Sable, and finally returned to looking at me. "Let’s go upstairs."

Sable glanced at the table, then met Mira’s eyes with that intense regard she reserved for matters that were under discussion. "Yes."

Rin had already pulled her chair back.

The room was as ever, not very big, one lamp, a Crown-provided bed that was practical and unremarkable. The three women and myself, which was still a sentence I couldn’t quite believe that I was saying even as it passed my lips.

Mira kissed me first because Mira set the pace. Her hands were on my jaw, as exacting as ever, leaving nothing to be said beforehand, like everything else she did. Rin’s hands were on my back, right after, warm through the fabric, a firm press against my flesh, no second thoughts involved.

Sable was a little removed from the proceedings, observing with those ink-stained fingers relaxed by her side. She was never uncertain about anything; there was simply a way in which she watched everything intently, wholly committed to whatever she had set out to do. She did not need to be pulled in. She simply arrived.

Here is what followed: you are going to get into the room because that is the only way to be truthful when writing it.

Mira got my shirt off in the style of someone who did not indulge in any superfluous actions. Sable touched my chest the same way she did her job — with an intent touch, the same way she explored the surface of a subject she was about to tamper with. Rin removed her own top — small in stature, she had none of the softness about her, the body of a woman who had been alone in her Floor 6 cell for eleven days and thought that it was a reasonable Tuesday.

My task was to release Mira’s laces as she started buttoning her own shirt, her left hand faster than her right hand as usual. Mira pulled her tunic over her head and dropped it. This was my first glance at the three of them in one place, which took me a second to digest.

Mira: lean, sharp-eyed, grey-eyed woman watching everything carefully.

Rin: small in stature, direct, impatient.

Sable: relaxed, focused, observing as I stared at her, with the clear understanding that she knew where this was all headed, and didn’t mind a bit.

Rin pulled me down to bed by the wrist — not forcibly, but with the kind of straightforwardness that was her only mode of operation. I slipped my hand between her legs, and she was already wet and slippery, making a brief noise that had nothing to do with performance.

Mira seated herself on the edge of the bed, tugging Sable to join her. I watched Mira’s hand travel up Sable’s leg, even as I worked my fingers inside of Rin, whose hips already swayed in motion against my hand, taking whatever she needed.

"More," Rin said, the most articulate she ever was.

I gave her more. I moved my fingers in the way I’d come to know she liked, and her legs clamped down on my wrist, her body lifting from the bed by two inches, making another sound that was completely unfiltered.

Mira had one of Sable’s breasts in her hands — Sable’s head was leaning back just slightly, the natural reaction of someone who was done watching and started feeling.

"Hey," Mira looked at me through Sable’s shoulder with her grey eyes and said, "Don’t make her wait." It was supposed to be some kind of suggestion but also an order.

I pulled out of Rin. Her lips made an indignant sound.

"Just a second," I promised her.

"Not more than that."

I walked towards Sable. She looked at me as I approached, this intense concentration on her face like always when she inspected her work before starting on it. I kissed her, she kissed back the same unhurriedly as always, Mira’s hand sneaked between us, separated Sable’s legs, Sable pulled away from the kiss and breathed out, first with restraint and then without.

"Ah," Sable said, it was more than enough to express her feelings.

I peeled the rest of her clothes from her while Mira took care of her. Sable’s hips continued to move in the same focused manner, without any showiness, purely the movement of a woman who knew what she wanted and was fully present in doing so. Her level of corruption was twenty-three, hovering by the corner of my vision, just like several other things I had consciously opted not to bother with tonight.

Rin grabbed me by the arm. "Now."

I turned to her and she pulled me between her legs, positioning me herself because Rin did not tolerate unnecessary measures. I thrust into Rin and the noise she made was quiet at first but soon grew louder.

Mira had moved behind Sable, kissing her neck as her hand continued working between her legs. Sable’s eyes were partially closed and she looked at us through them in that observant manner, not detached but fully present and noticing everything.

I entered Rin and she took all the strokes, nails digging into my shoulders. She didn’t put on any show with words, instead just making the sounds she needed to make and moving her hips in order to tell me everything that I needed to know without adding the extra performance piece.

"Harder," she eventually said.

I did that.

Sable came first, quietly, with control, and then without control, as Mira continued to manipulate with her fingers. The ink-splattered hand gripped the bedsheets just as well as it could grip anything else. She made a noise which was not anything like her normal voice but entirely her true self.

She looked at me over Sable’s back once more, satisfied in her very calculated way.

Next, Rin came in second place, squeezing me in with her legs locked around me and making no effort to do anything quietly, which would have been ridiculous for both of us.

This continued for some time. Rin did not move from where she was. Sable lay on her back staring at the ceiling, the same look of intense interest on her face like she was analyzing its grain. Meanwhile, Mira watched all of us from one elbow, her gaze as cold and distant as ever.

At last, she said, "Floor 7 geometry problem is unsolved yet."

"Mira," Rin answered her.

"This is quite true."

"It can wait for ten minutes."

"Very well," Mira conceded.

Sable smiled a little — a quick smile, her usual laugh. "Ten minutes," she concurred.

I gazed up at the ceiling.

The wiki had stopped its chattering. It cycled its passive readouts. All was well. Everything was as it should be.

I had an unanswered corruption arc, a Floor 7 unit whose kill point I had no clue about and markings that I couldn’t read completely, and a discrepancy in geometric configuration at a third corridor intersection which Mira was going to raise once more in eight minutes come hell or high water, regardless of whatever Rin said.

Three women in my room when there weren’t supposed to be any of those anywhere in the city.

Nine hundred and seven according to Daren and Lyra’s meter.

I shut my eyes.

Alright.