She spread the map on the desk, and both Satou and Jessica gathered around.

"Seraphine is here for three purposes," Lyra began, marking locations on the map. "First, the official evaluation—she genuinely will be assessing our settlement's viability. Second, intelligence gathering—she'll be looking for weaknesses, leverage, information she can use or sell. And third, corrupting Satou. That's her personal agenda, separate from the official business."

"How do we counter all three?" Satou asked.

"For the evaluation, we just be ourselves," Lyra said. "Our settlement is genuinely functional. The residents genuinely believe in what we're building. If she interviews honestly, she'll find positive results. That's in our favor."

"For intelligence gathering," she continued, "we can't stop her completely—she has legitimate access. But we can control what she sees. Cassius will shadow her movements. Urgak will ensure his guards don't reveal sensitive information about our defenses. I'll make sure any documents she examines are curated to show strength without revealing crucial vulnerabilities."

"And for the corruption attempt?" Jessica asked.

"That's where it gets tricky," Lyra admitted. "Seraphine is ancient, powerful, and has centuries of experience seducing and binding powerful beings. Her corrupted angel nature gives her abilities we don't fully understand. Direct confrontation won't work—she's far stronger than any of us. We need to be subtle."

She looked at Satou. "You're her primary target, which means you're never alone with her. When she requests private interviews, we'll be present. Not obviously—she can't claim we're interfering with official business—but close enough to intervene if needed."

"Won't she just order us out?" Jessica asked.

"She can try," Lyra said with a slight smile. "But as your partners, we have legitimate reasons to be near you. I'm your administrator—I need to brief you on settlement matters. Jessica is your healer—she needs to ensure you're healthy and not being affected by corruption. We'll be professional about it, but firm."

"She's not going to like that," Satou said.

"No, she's not," Lyra agreed. "But she also can't officially complain without revealing that her interest is more than just evaluation. If she protests too much, it exposes her true agenda. So she'll work around us, try to create opportunities to separate us. We need to be vigilant."

There was a knock at the door—soft but distinct.

All three of them tensed immediately.

"Who is it?" Lyra called.

"Cassius, my lady." The vampire's voice came through the door. "I have information about our... guest."

Lyra opened the door, and Cassius entered quickly, closing it behind him. His normally composed expression showed concern.

"Lady Seraphine has already begun," Cassius reported. "Not overtly, but subtly. She's been using her retinue to engage residents in casual conversation. They're asking questions that seem innocent but are designed to probe for dissatisfaction, weakness, or vulnerability. Several younger goblins have already shown signs of being... influenced by her presence."

"Influenced how?" Jessica asked with alarm.

"Distracted. Unfocused. One of them couldn't stop talking about how beautiful she was, how her voice made him feel 'warm inside.' Classic early signs of corruption taking root. I've separated those individuals and asked Jessica's assistant healers to examine them for magical contamination."

"Good," Lyra said. "Keep monitoring. If anyone shows advanced symptoms, quarantine them immediately and notify us. We can't let her corrupt our people just by being here."

"There's more," Cassius continued. "I overheard part of a conversation between members of her retinue. They were discussing 'the collection' and whether 'he would be compliant or require breaking.' They seemed confident that by the end of three days, Lord Satou would be leaving with them."

Satou felt a chill run down his spine. "They think I'm going to become part of Seraphine's collection? Just like that?"

"They're very confident," Cassius confirmed. "Which suggests they've done this before, many times, with similarly powerful individuals. Whatever Seraphine's method is, it has a high success rate."

"Then we need to be even more careful than we thought," Lyra said. She turned to Satou and Jessica. "From now until she leaves, we don't separate. We sleep together, eat together, work together. No opportunities for her to isolate any of us."

"Agreed," Satou said. Jessica nodded her confirmation.

"I'll continue surveillance," Cassius said. "And I've instructed Urgak to have his most mentally resilient warriors maintain watch on Seraphine's quarters. If she attempts to leave during the night, we'll know immediately."

"Thank you, Cassius," Satou said. "Your vigilance is appreciated."

The vampire bowed and melted back into shadows, departing as silently as he'd arrived.

"This is going to be a long three days," Jessica said quietly.

"Yes," Lyra agreed. "But we'll get through it together."

The evening continued with the three of them planning contingencies, discussing potential scenarios, and preparing for the interviews Seraphine would conduct tomorrow. They ate a simple dinner that Lyra had arranged to be brought to her quarters—no point venturing out and risking an encounter with Seraphine.

As night deepened, they prepared for sleep. The arrangement was slightly awkward at first, three people sharing a bed was new territory for all of them. But necessity overrode embarrassment.

Satou ended up in the middle, with Lyra on one side and Jessica on the other. Both women pressed close, as much for comfort and security as for space efficiency.

"This is strange," Jessica whispered into the darkness. "But also kind of nice. Safe."

"Agreed," Lyra murmured from her side. "Though if Satou snores, I'm kicking him out."

"I don't snore," Satou protested.

"We'll see," Lyra replied, but there was warmth in her voice.

They drifted off eventually, exhaustion from the stressful day overcoming the awkwardness of the sleeping arrangement.

—-------

Morning came too quickly. Satou woke to find himself thoroughly entangled with both women—Jessica's head on his chest, Lyra's arm across his waist, everyone's legs intertwined in ways that would take careful maneuvering to extract from.

"Good morning," Lyra's voice came, already awake. "Don't move too quickly or you'll wake Jessica. She's a light sleeper when stressed."

"Too late," Jessica mumbled against Satou's chest. "Already awake, Jessica maintained her position with her head laying on top of satou's chest for ten minutes and didn't want to move."

"Comfortable?" Satou asked with amusement.

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