Tik Tik taps her cheek. “Oh, and here I thought you were a mighty mistress of your domain. I must have been mistaken.”
The kitsune narrows her gaze, tapping her fingers against her hips. “Are you teasing me, Mistress Tik Tik?”
Tik Tik faces her fully, standing on her tip-toes and smirking, “Only if that gets you to dominate me,” she coos.
Jun glances down at Tik Tik down past her snout, sniffing and swishing her five tails. “Very well, then, if you’re going to be a brat about it, I may just have to deny you such knowledge and pleasure.”
Tik Tik sniffs blinks, and glances back over toward the door. “Sorry.”
“Huh?”
“I’m sorry,” the kobold says, keeping her head low and hands behind her back. She kicks at the floor and sniffles. “I took things too far. I want to know what you can do. I don’t want to upset you.”
Jun freezes, her fur standing on end. How could the great and powerful Tik Tik be so vulnerable and adorable? Jun turns around, covering her mouth in one hand and supporting her elbow in the other. She desperately tries to hold back the involuntary release of the most prolonged “Awww” she has ever uttered. She barely makes her way through it. “Aaawlirght,” she manages. “I forgive you.”
Tik Tik bounces on her toes, chirping. “You do!?”
“Right,” Jun says, turning around, stepping forward, grabbing the kobold by the horn, holding it tight, and yanking her to look at her face-to-face. “But you are in my realm, and I am your mistress today.”
“Yes, ma’am!” Tik Tik chirps, then flashes a cheeky grin. “For now.”
“Oh, I’m going to enjoy showing you just what I can do,” the kitsune says, turning the kobold’s head toward the door. “Now, if you place your hand upon the center of the circle, you shall be granted a view of your deepest desires.”
Tik Tik smirks at that, planting her hand square in the center of the door without looking at first. But once the magical energies hum around her, she cannot keep her curious eyes away. Throughout the runes, a pink light flows from the center, filling out every letter and every crevice of the door.
“I had to inscribe this all myself. It was quite the arduous process.,” the kitsune says. “Lots of sweat, tears, and sleepless nights poured into making something unique.”
The door swings open, filling the room with the musty scent of old books and the electric sparking of magic.
“Mm, that’s all sorts of magic here,” Tik Tik says. “May I see the spell formula?”
“Ask nicely,” the kitsune says, her gaze fixing the darkened room on the other side.
“Sure,” Tik Tik responds. “Please, mistress, Tik Tik needs to see the room.”
The mistress lets go of the kobold’s horn, and Tik Tik scampers inside, disappearing into the darkness.
Jun chuckles to herself and follows the kobold inside. She produces a pinprick of light on her finger that bathes the area around her in a gentle red glow.
Inside this room, the walls are worked with chisels and picks, and the ground is smoothed stone, gently coated in a cloud of delicate yet sticky dust. The track seems to go down deep, where the patter of Tik Tik’s feet echoes throughout the quiet room.
“It goes down deep!” her voice carries from deeper within.
“It’s a pocket dimension,” the kitsune says, continuing her slow trek downward, paying particular attention to the walls around her and the floor at her feet. “It was created by your deep desires. It exists but doesn’t exist at the same time.”
“It’s a reality, but it isn’t a real one… it’s a virtual one!” Tik Tik responds from the darkness.
“Yes, I suppose you could say it’s something like that. It’s much like my cube,” she says, entering a balcony. Beyond her is a vast chamber that goes beyond the range of her magic, filled with shelves arranged in a maze. “And what is your desire?”
Beyond, the kobold giggles. “If you can find me, you can find out!”
“So, it’s a hunt, is it?” the kitsune says, her smile showing off her sharp teeth. “I’ve indulged others in such a thing before,” she says, levitating off the platform and gently placing herself among the shelves. “It’s quaint. I’m a little disappointed in the simplicity of it.”
“If you’re so disappointed, you can do whatever you want to me when you find me, okie dokie, Mistress Jun?”
Jun shakes her head. “Oh, believe me. I very much intend to, Mistress Tik Tik.”
When Jun lands on the floor among the stack of bookcases, she shakes her head. The kitsune pads through the maze, speaking to her quarry. “You know, Tik Tik, you seek to flatter me here and make me discover something new about you, but all I see is the same trite cat-and-mouse game that so many others want.”
She peers around a corner, her gaze narrowing, sniffing the air around her. “I know you’re close, Tik Tik, and when I find you, I’ll punish you for making me work so hard,” she says, turning another corner, where the walls make way for an exhibition hall lined with various trinkets and art pieces. The vast chamber is filled with rows of shelves, statues, and racks, and she cannot help but stop her pursuit, catch her breath in her throat, and run up to experience it all.
“Is that an armor set from the knights of love? Oh, and is that the cloak of Estrasa, Dark Mistress of Transformation? And here, a petal from the Lily Nymph? This vial has sex jelly essence, and this is a cake from Baker’s Bakery!”
Jun hunches over to scrutinize the books and the documented artifacts on display, each meticulously catalogued with elements from Tik Tik’s stories.
“Oh, I’ve yearned to see these with my own eyes after reading about them. My room has manifested them perfectly. If only I could take them for myself and add them to my true collection! It’s simply a dream come true!”
The silence that responds to her makes her words echo through the empty hall, and she stands, sighing.