"Did Glamors always exist in your culture?"
"Negation. Only for the last few hundred years. But there are hints that Glamors were expected; altars were set up and changelings appeared with the potential to become Glamors. We did not evolve ikons; they came with the first Glamors."
"Among us too. It is as if Glamors were sponsored by the need for them, to fight the machines. The diverse cultures of the galaxy would be unlikely to unify, but for the Glamors."
"Almost as though the galaxy cares," Marionette said. "It doesn't want the machines to take it over."
They organized the treaty and the Twins' fleet made ready to join the fleet of the Living Cultures Coalition. It would be a significant addition.
"But can even the combined fleets stop the onslaught of the machines?" Vra asked.
"Doubtful," Warp said seriously. "They are type 2.5 technology, and ours are typically type 2.0. Each ship of theirs is superior to ours, and they have seemingly limitless numbers of them. But with the alternative being obliteration, we have to try."
"Did they offer you a deal?"
"They want my little sister Voila. She's our strongest Glamor, and maybe the strongest of all Glamors. She can see the near future paths, while they see the far future; they want to merge the two and be invincible."
"The future," Arv said. "We are unable to see that."
"Our mission here is done," Warp said. "We have no pretext to remain longer. But if you care to visit the Human culture, perhaps to see to the routing and provisioning of your space ships, we shall be glad to show you this ability also. It is one of several Glamor talents we discovered by chance."
"We shall arrange that pretext," Vra said. "Your culture is surely worth touring."
In a few days it happened. Pso and Osp remained with the fleet, to see to its integration, while Vra and Arv remained with Warp, visiting the human realm. Marionette reminded the male twins that she was less than a Glamor, and when they expressed continuing interest, she elected to stay with them for a few days while Warp was busy with the female twins. Pso and Osp had discovered how sexually talented she was despite not being a Glamor, and this enabled them to work together without being sexually frustrated.
Warp brought the pair of females to Ennui's office. "My alien mistresses," he said. "You were right, Ennui: the mission needed a virile Glamor."
Ennui looked them over. "You are alien? You could readily pass for human. You are beautiful."
"Appreciation," Vra's translation unit said. "We find Warp very appealing."
"Curiosity: do you take turns with him?"
"No," they said together.
"They're really quite something in bed," Warp said. "Together."
"I would imagine so." Ennui almost evinced disapproval.
Warp arranged to show off the twins to the other Glamors. Flame gazed at them assessingly, evidently seeing very little muscle tone. Weft was plainly jealous, especially considering the way Ikon looked at them.
Then they looked at Ikon. "A machine!" Vra exclaimed, horrified. "Self willed."
"Masquerading as a human man," Arv said. "Do you not know it?"
"We know it," Weft said. "He is a humanoid robot devoted to me."
"But self-willed machines can't be trusted. They are the enemy."
"Not this one," Weft said.
"I won't introduce them to Shee or the bath girls," Warp said, and conjured them away.
Gale was intrigued. "Twin Glamors," she said. "That might hold you for oh, two minutes?"
"Ma—"
"Teasing, son. They're beautiful. Congratulations."
They conjured to a private site for another tryst.
"She's wonderful," Vra said, wrapping her arms and legs about him.
"She understands," Arv agreed, doing the same.
"Ma's a great girl," he agreed, delighting in their joint clasp. These two were twins with an odd connection, and their natural forms were not at all attractive to him sexually, but he liked their personalities and physical presentation.
The knowledge that normally they were not as they were now turned out to be another kind of turn-on. They were great girls too.
"She wants you settled," Vra said. "Knowing that you need more than Marionette, being a male Glamor."
"Continued association would not be a burden to you?" he asked between thrusts.
"No," Arv said. "We like kinky sex."
She wasn't fooling. There turned out to be a number of overlap positions, including one wherein they conjoined head to toe so that he kissed one face and two legs.
"At such time as both of us are not available," Vra said, "one of us could still satisfy you orally." They separated and demonstrated. They were very good at this too.
"As long as you understand why, and are not turned off," Arv said as Vra sucked another extended emission from him. "Understanding!" he gasped. Next he took them to Voila. "Oh, you radiate power!" Vra exclaimed.
"We have never before encountered a Glamor like you," Arv said. "No wonder the machines want you."
"This is the way you do it," Voila said, and sent them a telepathic formula. That was her way of changing the subject.
"The paths!" Vra said. "I see them!"
"Diverging from the present," Arv agreed.
"And half of them lead to—"
"Borrow the bedroom," Voila said.
And they were there with Warp, overlapping and merging, giving him another spectacular experience so soon after the last one. They were still as eager as he, which was one of the delightful things about them.
They will do, Voila's thought came as the heroic session concluded. Idyll says they are indeed your future mistress.
Appreciation, he thought pantingly.
"Are you thinking?" Vra asked.
"Sharing your experience with your sister?" Arv asked.
"Affirmation," he agreed, slightly embarrassed.
"Excellent," Vra said.
"We have no secrets from Glamors," Arv said.
He had to laugh. They were Glamors, through and through. He liked them a lot.
Havoc was another matter. He was clearly drawn to the twins, and they to him. "You already have a small harem, Pa," Warp reminded him. Would his father be turned off by knowing the twins' real forms? Surely not.
"Expletive!" Havoc said good-naturedly, his eyes on their sculptured chests. "I think I forgot, blinded by beauty."
"Still—" Arv began, flattered, one hand toying with her décolletage. Her sister was unobtrusively hiking up her short skirt. There was just something about Havoc.
Warp whisked them off to see Idyll, who was already in her solid human guise. "This is Idyll, the ifrit Glamor,"
he said. "Idyll, these are Vra and Arv, Glamors of Air and Water."
"There is only one of you?" Vra asked. "Just as there are only four of us?"
"Affirmation. The humans, in contrast, have many different Glamors. It varies from species to species. But all Glamors seem to relate well to each other."
"Verified," Arv agreed, glancing sidelong at Warp.
Idyll had obviously anticipated this meeting. She instructed them in intermediate future paths seeing, and they seemed to have a certain aptitude for it. Warp was happy to let them take their time.
"We shall be glad to do the same for Pso and Osp," Idyll said.
"They will want sex with you," Vra said.
"Of course. This is why I am interested."
"You form solid, in any shape you choose?" Arv asked.
"Affirmation."
"Could you form twinned?"
Idyll paused. "I could. That would be intriguing."
"They would like that."
It seemed that the twins would be a success, at least among the Glamors.
"But there is one thing," Vra said.
"Speak."
"That machine," Arv said. "The humanoid robot that keeps company with Weft. She believes he is safe, but we do not trust any self willed machine."