After hearing the effects, that was way too good. Though Liam did wonder why Elizabeth was included in the buff radius.

"Dear wolf, any members of your growing... harem will also enjoy their own buffs, different from a normal user."

Hestia’s embrace covered him again, that gentle heat pressing into his chest like sunlight through glass.

He didn’t unpack that word. Harem, he absolutely did not.

Liam handed the next slice of translucent, freeze-dried seafood to Elizabeth. The thing looked like a shard of stained glass, shimmering with residual soul energy from the Mini-Lich, cold vapour curling off its edges.

"Eat it fast." His words came out low, a deep rumble that filled the frozen chamber. "Before the Lich starts crying again."

"I AM NOT CRYING," the Mini-Lich squeaked from his cage tethered to Rogue. "I AM ACCUMULATING MOISTURE TO KILL YOU."

"Sure you are, Bone-Daddy," Liam muttered. He turned his attention back to Elizabeth.

He turned back to Elizabeth. She’d taken the slice but hadn’t eaten it yet, just standing there with frost dusting her pink hair, her cheeks flushed from the cold. Or from the fight. One of those, a scratch ran along her jaw, thin and fresh. Without thinking, Liam reached out and tilted her chin up with two fingers, inspecting the mark.

"You alright?"

Elizabeth’s breath caught. Her grip tightened on the seafood slice, and her cat ears flattened sideways, then sprang back up. She swatted his hand away, but not hard.

"I’m fine. It’s nothing." She bit into the slice. Chewed. Her pink gaze dropped to his chest, where his shirt hung open. Came back up. "Stop looking at me like that."

He wasn’t looking at her like anything. He was checking for injuries.

"Right." He let it go. "We need to move, we’re borderline immune to ice now." He glanced over his shoulder. "Rogue, Berry, have you tried it?"

Berry stepped forward, her tiger tail swaying in a slow, deliberate arc behind her. She folded her arms beneath her chest, orange and black hair catching the blue light of the frozen corridor. That confident posture, the one she used to command her guild, sat on her shoulders like armour.

Then she looked directly at Liam, and the armour cracked.

"No." Her tone came out lower than usual, a touch breathless. "I was waiting for you to feed me the way you fed the kitten."

Liam stilled. Deep breath in through his nose. The cold tasted like salt and iron.

She was being difficult on purpose. He could see it in the slight upturn of her mouth, the way her orange gaze held his with a challenge threaded through it. Her fingers curled at her sides, though. Nervous.

"Alright." He picked up a piece of the freeze-dried serpent, thin and luminous between his fingers. "If you can’t feed yourself."

He stepped into her space. Berry was tall, 5’10, but he still had half a foot on her. The smell of black tea and something sweet, like burnt caramel, drifted off her skin. He brought the slice to her lips.

Berry opened her mouth. Her tongue brushed the pad of his thumb as she took it.

"Good?" he asked.

Liam then chucked a piece of cured seafood at Rogue, "Here, eat this"

Elizabeth watched. Her arms were crossed. Her jaw was set. But she didn’t say anything, didn’t step between them.

Liam remembered her words from before, the casual way she’d said she didn’t mind. Hearing it was one thing; watching it happen in the blue-lit cold of a dungeon, with Berry still glowing and his thumb still damp, was different.

Elizabeth’s gaze tracked to where Berry’s tail wagged, then back to Liam. Her expression was unreadable, but she shifted half an inch closer to his side. Territorial. Subtle enough to deny.

He chucked a piece of cured seafood at Rogue’s head.

"Here. Eat this."

"HEY!" Rogue caught it against his chest, fumbling. "DON’T THROW IT AT ME LIKE... AND WHAT WAS THAT WITH BERRY? HUH? WHAT WAS THAT? YOU JUST...WITH THE THUMB? AND SHE?"

"Time to move," Liam said.

"Let’s go."

Liam started walking. Elizabeth fell in step on his left, close enough that her shoulder brushed his arm. Berry drifted to his right, still not making direct visual contact, still radiating heat like a furnace. Her tail had settled into a slow, content sway.

Rogue trailed behind them, the Mini-Lich’s cage rattling on its tether. Rogue was muttering under his breath loud enough to hear: "I’m going to start cooking. That’s clearly the move. I’m going to learn to cook. Women love a man who cooks. It’s over for these hoes once I learn seasoning."

The corridor opened into the wider chamber where the rest of the party had held position. Mirra stood near a crumbled pillar, staff planted, her sharp features scanning the returning group.

Her gaze caught Elizabeth first. The pink flush still sitting on her cheeks, the way her hand had found Liam’s wrist at some point during the walk back, fingers loose but present. Then Mirra’s attention slid to Berry, who was walking with the dreamy, unfocused expression of someone replaying a three-second interaction on infinite loop.

Mirra raised an eyebrow. A slow, devastating arch.

"Well, look what the cat dragged back in." She tapped her staff once. "We were wondering if you’d died."

"DON’T WORRY, MY BEAUTIFUL MIRRA-MILF!" Rogue dropped to one knee before her, cage clattering behind him, arms spread wide. "I AM BACK, SAFE AND SOUND."

Mirra looked down at him the way one looks at a stain on new furniture. "Yeah. No, thank you." She stepped around him. "Not what I want."

Rogue stayed on one knee, processing.

Noir appeared from behind a frozen pillar, her dark robes shifting as she moved. Her gaze swept the group with surgical precision. Landed on Elizabeth’s hand around Liam’s wrist. Traveled to Berry, who was now absently touching her own lower lip where his thumb had been.

Noir’s eyebrow climbed.

Midnight emerged from the dark shadows she’d been holding, ice particles melting in her dark hair. She’d done well; she nodded once at him, small and certain.

Liam nodded back. Then he held up the remaining freeze-dried serpent slices, fanned out between his fingers like translucent playing cards.

"Everyone needs to eat. Frost resistance buff, tastes like salted jerky if jerky went to heaven."

He started distributing. A slice for Mirra, who took it with curious fingers.

[TOOL TIP: THE "BONE-CHILL"]

The "H-Word": Hestia officially used the "Harem" word. Liam’s brain has filed this under

[DO NOT UNPACK / EMERGENCY ONLY]. He is currently pretending he didn’t hear it, which is the most relatable thing he’s ever done. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

Rogue’s Epiphany: After witnessing the power of the "Thumb-to-Lip" technique, Rogue has decided to pivot his entire build into Culinary Arts.