Into the Fire
Ten
Eve came into the kitchen and headed for the teapot. Kerrik’s eyes followed her from where he sat at the table cradling a cup between his palms. “You’re up early.”
“I should say the same for you.” She poured herself a cup and added some sugar before sitting down next to him. “Where is Irena?”
“I’m not up early, I’m up late.” He smiled briefly. “She’s finally asleep.”
Blue eyebrows that were faintly speckled with white to match her hair rose curiously. “You two were up the whole night?”
“It was her first time with a male and she was feeling experimental.” His eyes grew distant and he took a convulsive swallow of his tea.
Eve watched him for several seconds. “Kerrik, what’s the matter?”
He glanced at her and went back to staring into the distance. “I know she’s an adult and I’m trying to keep that in mind.” His voice trailed off.
“Hey!” The Megami-sama poked him gently and he started before turning to eye her suspiciously. “I asked what was wrong.”
“Do you know anything about chibi pokegirls?”
“I’ve met a couple of them but no, I don’t, not really. They’re a pretty rare pokegirl variant.”
“We call them templates and, yes, they are extremely rare. Once a chibi pokegirl reaches puberty they gain the ability to switch between the form their current age provides and a child form at will, but the child form becomes their natural state and the one they default to. They have to constantly concentrate to remain in their adult form. It’s not hard for them, but if they get sufficiently distracted they’ll change back to their child form.” He drank his tea and got up to refill his cup. “The list of distractions includes several things, but one of them is really good sex, which apparently we had last night.”
Eve’s eyes widened when she noticed that he moved stiffly and favored his right side as he returned to the table. “What happened to you?”
He shrugged and winced. “She’s got enhanced strength and is at least twice as strong as I am.”
“Show me what she did.”
“It’s really nothing.” At her pointed stare, he shrugged out his shirt. Eve gasped at what she saw. Heavy bruises were forming over his hips and around his waist while rows of angry red lines ran down his chest. “But the biggest problem is me.”
She interrupted him. “Why didn’t she heal you?”
“She healed my back where she clawed it up. In her professional opinion the rest of the damage wasn’t severe enough to her to warrant medical aid.” He smiled slightly at the Megami-sama’s look of shock and pulled his shirt back on. “Irena is a Night Nurse and they do have their own ideas of what should need immediate treatment and what shouldn’t. And she’s right. I’ll be fine.”
Eve slid her hands under the shirt and began healing him. “Yes, you will be. What’s this other problem you’ve alluded to?”
“One second I was with a nice soft curvy woman and next I was balls deep inside a not very soft or curvy ten year old body. It was rather disconcerting and we had to work past it.”
Eve blinked. “She turned into a kid during sex?”
“No, her shape changed into something that I don’t find sexually attractive. I have to keep in mind that she was never a child when she joined us and she’s not a child now. I presume it’s a lot like having sex with a skinny midget, although I’ve never done that either. It’s not really her fault, and since I accepted her I have to accept all of her, including something that I’m not really very happy about.” He gave his alpha a hard look. “It’s also something she doesn’t need to know about. Ever. I’ll get over it eventually. I just want to make damned sure that Irena’s chibi form is the only immature form that I’m even remotely attracted to.”
Eve wrapped her arms gently around him and pulled him down to cradle his head against her chest. “It troubles you that much?”
He nodded without pulling away. “Yes, it does. I protect children, I don’t fuck them. I just need to keep reminding myself that she’s not a child, she’s just got needs as special as anyone else in my harem.” He smiled slightly. “She’s cursed to be an involuntary shapechanger. I’ll just keep repeating that to myself.”
“If she’s that much trouble, we should get rid of her. If you can’t sleep with her, she’s not going to make it here.”
Kerrik pulled away from her and glared at Eve. “You just drop that idea right the fuck now. It was your idea to go to Dublin and find the pokegirl you said we needed. Well, we found her and I’m not discarding someone just because she’s got a problem.” His voice began to rise. “She’s not a fucking animal and you will damn well keep that in mind or we’re going to have a fight the likes of which we have never had before! I will not ever throw away people like they’re fucking garbage! If you’d wanted that option, you should have done something before I accepted her into my life and she became real!” He froze and his face smoothed as he suddenly swallowed his anger. “Good morning, Irena.”
The Night Nurse was peering worriedly around the door frame from the hallway. “I don’t want to cause any trouble.” She was in her immature form and wearing the undershirt Kerrik had worn yesterday to the Sadie Pokens event. It was huge on her and hung down to her knees.
Kerrik held out his arms. “Come here, please.” She climbed into his lap and curled up in his arms. “You’re not. I’m the one causing trouble, and Eve and I were arguing about how much trouble it was worth.”
Irena frowned. “How are you causing trouble?”
“I’m sexually repressed and I like being that way, at least about certain things.”
“Is it because you don’t want me when I look like this?”
Eve nodded. “That’s the problem.”
“I still want you; it’s just that I’m not attracted to your immature form sexually.”
“That’s one of the reasons I chose you.” Irena played with the hair on his arm. “I’m sorry about what happened last night. I thought my control was better than that and I could keep from changing.” She looked up and gave Kerrik a smile. “But that wasn’t anything like what I expected. I thought it would be like using a dildo with another pokegirl, but it was very different.”
“Better, I hope.”
She giggled. “Much. It was hot and sweaty and messy and sticky and I loved it. I’ll work on trying not to change during sex, but if every time with you is going to be like last night, it’s going to take a while.”
Eve chuckled. “Careful, too much praise might go straight to his head.”
Irena patted him on the hip. “As long as the little one gets a share of my praise, I’m fine with that.” She slid out of his lap and pulled her shirt down as Kerrik turned bright red. “Who wants pancakes for breakfast?”
Kerrik looked thoughtful for several seconds as he watched Irena head for the stove. “I think I’ll talk to Dominique later and see if she can’t design a spell to keep Irena from transforming when she doesn’t want to.”
***
Dominique laughed loudly as Eve stared at Kerrik. “You told them what?”
Irena had been recounting how she’s met Kerrik. She’d gotten around to explaining that she’d heard he was crazy and the other ladies had turned on him with questions, finally badgering him into telling what he’d been doing, which had naturally led into the stories he’d told to interested pokegirls in order to make them go away. “I, uh, told them that my mother was my alpha.”
Scheherazade looked at the expression on her alpha’s face and clamped both hands over her own muzzle to keep her own laughter muffled.
It just made her whine loudly.
Eve folded her arms. “And just why did you do that?”
“Because there were four pokegirls from the same harem who thought I’d be a nice catch. I’ve already got you, so I didn’t need the Angel. You also neatly fill any role the Valkyrie could have held as well. The other two pokegirls were a Shadowcat and Ladyien. While the Ladyien is the best of the insect breeds, and can be very cute, they tend to be a bit bossy and I don’t need another mother.” Eve scowled at that. “As for the Shadowcat, I’m not really a cat person. I also remembered that nothing you said suggested that I should be looking for a team of pokegirls to get what you thought I needed. Therefore I decided that improvisation was the order of the day and spun a tale about my pregnant mother being my alpha to drive them off. It worked nicely without anyone getting their feelings hurt about me not wanting them or anyone deciding I was a challenge that they should attempt to beat.” A smile flickered around his lips. “They just thought I was disgusting, which I can live with.”
Eve’s mouth dropped again. “Pregnant? That’s new.”
He blinked. “Uh, yeah, I didn’t mention that before. I said she was pregnant. Someone asked if she was a pokewoman, which only made sense since she was my mother. Then they got the impression that the child my fictional mother was carrying was sired by me. At that point they beat a hasty retreat.”
Scheherazade stared at him with a shocked expression as her tail tucked between her legs. “That’s horrible.”
“Yes, it is. That would be why I said it. I thought the Angel was going to barf. I do feel a little bad about that, but my method worked and I didn’t hurt anything except my reputation. I’ll never see them again and so their opinion of me doesn’t matter.”
Irena’s giggle rang like crystal. “No wonder the rumors all said that you were insane.”
He shrugged. “Sometimes I’m not sure who is right and who is wrong about my sanity or lack thereof.”
The Night Nurse watched him with disturbingly mature eyes. “Can I ask you a question?”
Eve chuckled. “He encourages us to question him, although perhaps a bit too much sometimes.”
Kerrik nodded. “I do, but that’s the only way to ensure that I don’t accidentally lead us into a deathtrap that someone else might have spotted. Too many tamers train their pokegirls not to question him or her and a lot of them and their harems end up dead because of stupid mistakes. What’s your question?”
“What did you mean when you said I’d become real?”
He suddenly looked uncomfortable and then sighed softly. “That’s a difficult question, but I’ll try to answer it. Every person lives in a bubble, and depending on their individual personality, that bubble can vary greatly in size. The important thing about the bubble is that the things inside that bubble are important to the bubble’s creator and the things outside it aren’t. For example, a person watches a horrific tragedy on the news. For almost everyone, if that tragedy happens to involve people that they know or see regularly, they feel empathy for those people and they want to help them somehow. If the tragedy involves people in a different league, then some individuals feel empathy for them and send aid, while others with a smaller bubble just watch and talk about what a shame that event is. Things inside the bubble are real and things outside it aren’t and, if forced to, a person can do terrible things to the people outside their personal bubble and not feel anything close to the guilt they’d feel if they hurt someone they cared about.”
Irena kicked her legs as she cocked her head curiously. “That is an interesting way to look at that. How big is your bubble?”
“The people in this room are the only ones in my bubble, although I might also include an Ingénue named April in that. I’m not quite a sociopath, who has room in his bubble only for himself, but I’m damned close. That’s what I meant when I said you became real. Eve convinced me to bring you into my bubble. Before that, I could just walk away from you if I needed to.” He smiled. “I even tried to, but you followed me.”
“I think I might want to talk to you more about this subject later.” She started to say something else when a pounding sound came from the front door. She blinked in surprise when Eve was suddenly in outlined in gold energy and a ghostly glowing sword appeared in her hand while a glowing shield filled the other. Scheherazade turned metallic silver and sprouted claws while Dominique was also outlined in gold as she pulled an ornate ebony and silver staff that thrummed with power out of nothingness.
Kerrik pushed to his feet. “The Goths probably wouldn’t knock, but you never know. Shay, you and Dominique check the interior of the house. Don’t let anyone outside see you. Eve, Irena, let’s go see who’s here. If we have to evacuate, we’ll meet at the cave. Oh, and Dominique, if there’s time I think we’ll want another armor ring for Irena.”
The pounding came again as Eve peeked out the window that was next to the front door. “It’s Pat.”
Kerrik frowned. “Stand down everyone. Irena, Patricia, or Pat as she likes to be called by some people, is the Officerjenny who works for Sheriff Bertram Dobbs. The two of them are the law enforcement here in Buncrana.”
The chibi Night Nurse flashed him a smile. “Thank you for explaining that and incidentally telling me that we live in Buncrana. Mother will be happy that we’re still in Ireland.”
Kerrik smiled back. “You’re welcome. Eve?”
The Megami-sama opened the door with a broad smile. “Good morning, Pat.”
The Officerjenny gave her a distracted smile. “Morning, Eve. I need to talk to your tamer.”
Kerrik’s face changed slightly and Irena blinked as the warmth fled from his smile, leaving it cold and empty as he stepped out where he could be seen from the doorway. “Officer, I’m right here. Is there a problem?”
Patricia’s eyes flicked past Eve to him. “Yes, there is, sir. The sheriff needs to talk to you.”
“I don’t see him. Is this official business?” He paused for a second. “Are you here to arrest me?”
The Officerjenny stared at him vaguely for several seconds before frowning. “You? No, I’m not here to arrest anyone. We need to talk to you and your harem.” Her voice was rough with suppressed emotion. “He’s at the station.”
Eve put her hand on Patricia’s shoulder. “What’s the matter, Pat?”
“It’s,” she broke off and shook her head. “Bertram needs to tell it.”
Eve glanced at Kerrik, but he was already speaking. “Eve, get Patricia some tea and make her comfortable while I get presentable. When someone else comes back, you go get ready. Irena, I don’t want to keep the sheriff waiting, so there’s no time for a long bath. Wash off and get dressed to go out.”
“Ok.” She turned and darted up the stairs three at a time, her bare butt flashing from under his shirt.
Pat watched as Irena turned around the corner and disappeared. “Who is that?”
Kerrik stopped and turned on the stairs. “That’s Irena. She joined my harem during Sadie Pokens. She’s a chibi.”
“I’ll need proof of that.”
Kerrik’s eyes narrowed. “Do you want to spend the next hour arguing? I’m more than willing to be an ass about it almost but not quite to the point that you could arrest me. After all, this problem of the sheriff’s isn’t important to me yet.”
She blinked and looked away. “We’ll discuss this later.”
“That’s what I thought.”
He headed past Scheherazade as she came down the stairs and stopped in front of Eve. “I’m ready to go. I’ll get her some tea while you change.”
“Thanks.” The Megami-sama flew up the stairs. Instead of going to her room, she stopped at his. “What do you think is going on?”
“You’re the prognosticator, you tell me.” He buttoned his shirt as she stuck out her tongue at him. “But whatever it is, Patricia is so rattled that she called the sheriff by his first name in front of us. I think I can tell you what it is not.”
She smiled. “Let’s hear your speculations.”
“It’s not something that a sheriff and his Officerjenny, the primary power in Buncrana besides the gym leader, can deal with by themselves. It’s not a tamer call out and it’s not something that they can go to the other major power, the gym leader to help with.” He met her eyes. “It’s unofficial, or else why would the sheriff, who we’ve never met, come to me, the person with an all celestial harem that just happens to be kickass powerful to boot? So, what does the awareness have to say about that?”
Her eyes glowed for a second before coming back to alertness. Concern filled them. “You could write for the awareness.”
“Remember that I did for a while. What’s the verdict?”
“Danger. Death. Nothing having to do with Goth pokegirls.”
“Does any of that death have to be ours? If so, I’m more than willing to abandon the house.”
“Your shotgun is downstairs.”
“Scheherazade can retrieve it before she joins us,” he shot back, “and if she can’t it’s not worth the life of anyone here, except maybe Patricia’s. Well?”
“The death and danger are general in nature and not necessarily aimed at us.”
He nodded. “But if we jump into the grinder with whoever is supposed to be in there, we’ll be hamburger too. That’s not anything new for life. It’s all fun and games until that sudden stop at the end, and then you’re dead and don’t care.” He stared at the wall as he stuffed his shirt hem inside his pants. “Get dressed for visiting. We’ll see what the sheriff wants.”
“Shotgun?”
“I wish. Maybe I’ll develop a severe fear of being unarmed so I have to haul it everywhere.” He smiled. “Nobangbangaphobia.” Eve laughed softly as she headed for her room.
Kerrik finished dressing and joined Scheherazade and Pat downstairs. The Officerjenny was finishing up a cup of tea when he arrived. “Thank you for meeting with the sheriff.”
“Don’t get too excited, Patricia. I’m not agreeing to whatever he wants just yet. I’m just willing to see what is going on that’s got you so upset.”
“I know, and I appreciate this, Mr. Wolf.”
“My name is Kerrik.”
Is that really your name? Dominique entered the kitchen. Do we have time for lunch?
It’s my name now. He shook his head. No. We’ll get something to eat after the meeting.
Patricia looked at him for several seconds. “Thank you, Kerrik. Why don’t you call me Pat?”
“You told Eve and Dominique to call you Pat. You told me your name was Patricia, so that’s what I use.”
Eve slipped into the kitchen. “He’s right, and he’s got some odd social rules about nicknames.”
Pat’s investigative curiosity started stirring. “Why?”
“I don’t like people giving me nicknames. They’re usually insulting or derogatory in some way. Because of that, I try not to give people nicknames either.” He muttered something quietly enough all that was heard was the word “Wolfy”.
The Officerjenny looked thoughtful. “You had a lot of aliases in the past?”
“I did, but mostly only for websites.”
“Mostly? Were you born Kerrik Wolf?”
He shook his head as Eve stiffened slightly. “Nope. I’m not the person I was when I was born and so when I came to the Blue League a change of name was in order. I wasn’t anyone important, on either side of the law, and an inquiry about me to other leagues or the Planetary League Council isn’t going to come up with anything interesting in my past.” Mentally he crossed his fingers that she’d take that at face value and not try and contact the Blue League, which, although it still thought Dominique was their agent since she continued to report to them, just might get a sudden desire to meet with Kerrik Wolf if an inquiry about him came in from an official source.
Irena came in and stood next to Kerrik. Her midnight hair was still damp and tumbled in curls over the collar of her jumpsuit. “I’m ready.”
Kerrik glanced at her and nodded. “One question, that looks snug. How’s it going to fit if you have to change?”
She winked. “I’ve done it before. It’ll be rather tight across my hips, ass and chest, but then you’ll like that, won’t you?”
He smiled back. “As long as you can still function, I will. Patricia, let’s go see what the sheriff wants.”
Uncertain of what the Blue League might have put out about them, they’d avoided the sheriff’s little building up to this point. It was an interesting design, with what looked like a cozy house in the front and a solid looking brick structure in the back that someone had attempted to decorate to match the front. While not strong enough to contain most pokegirl prisoners, it would handily hold any non-magic using human. Magic using humans were either turned over to league specialists or sometimes came up mysteriously dead if the specialists were too far away and the sheriff didn’t know any other way to deal with them. While killing prisoners was frowned upon, sheriffs had a lot of latitude in regards to their personal safety and the league understood that sometimes permanent things happened to prisoners when they tried to escape. Belligerent pokegirls were either killed or placed in pokeballs and put into storage to prevent them from blasting their way to freedom. Very few cities had the resources to put pokegirls into anything resembling jail and keep them there. Fewer still were willing to spend the money on the nonhuman creatures.
The front door led straight into the sheriff’s office, with two doors leading out. One led to the cells while the other, a massive door with a very sturdy lock on it, led to the living quarters shared by the sheriff, any family and his harem.
Bertram Dobbs was in his early fifties and a tall, spare man with a surprising amount of physical strength when needed. He was also tough, and stories were still told about how he’d been grabbed by Team Viper when on patrol twenty years before. He had not only fought his way free of them, he’d immediately assembled a posse and brought them to justice before sitting still long enough for his broken ribs and shoulder to be treated. His hair was going gray, but it was still a thick fall that brushed his broad shoulders. His green eyes watched Kerrik and his group enter with a suppressed fury tinged with paralyzing fear. He looked at Patricia. “Get everyone some tea.” Then he waved at some chairs scattered around the room. “Sit down.” His tone brooked no argument.
When they were seated, with Irena perched on Scheherazade’s lap, he glared at Kerrik. “The Landry family is one of the owners of Guinness and has been for over a century. They own the Dawn Star, a private airship based out of Dublin. Yesterday evening she didn’t report in her position on radio. The league sent out a SAR team and they didn’t find any wreckage or signs that the airship had crashed or been attacked. Then they left, and although I thought it kind of abrupt I didn’t think to question it at the time.” His mouth twisted. “My son, Richard, is the engineer on her. He called early this morning and told me that they’d been taken hostage by someone who wanted to ransom Andrew Landry back to his family. He’d managed to hide his phone and contacted me with it. According to him, the league already knew about the kidnapping and wasn’t doing anything while they negotiated, even though the kidnappers had already executed at least one crewmember to demonstrate their resolve and speed up the process.” Dobbs leaned back in his chair. “I found out an hour ago that he was right, when the league told me what happened and ordered me not to get involved. Not only did it tie my hands, they made sure Patty knew about the orders.” He glanced at the door to their rooms. “That’s why she’s making tea, so she can’t hear my trying to find a way around those orders.” His attention returned to Kerrik. “You’re a celestial tamer and you’ve got a powerful harem. Will you rescue those people?”
Kerrik folded his arms. “Say it. You don’t have to beg, but you have to say it. I want to know where the priorities are supposed to lie.”
Dobbs seemed to fold inward and his face twisted with agony. “Please save my son.”
Kerrik looked at the doorway where Patricia stood silently. “And you?”
She carefully didn’t look at him as she entered the room and put the tea tray down on the sheriff’s desk. “They didn’t tell us not to get aid from non-league sources. Richie is my baby and I want him to come home safely.” She did look up at him then. “I want them all home safe with their families, but Richie is mine.”
“What about the kidnappers?”
The Officerjenny didn’t look away. “The law says they can die for their crimes. It doesn’t say they have to have a trial first, either.” Her voice was hard. “That satisfies me.”
He nodded. “Sheriff, do you know where the airship is?”
Dobbs shook his head helplessly. “Richard didn’t know.”
“You expect me to find an airship that nobody else has been able to, board it and rescue your son and the rest of the crew if I can.” Kerrik grimaced and rubbed his face. “What the hell, I’m supposed to pull off a good deed every day or Eve gets twitchy.” She blinked and smiled suddenly. “Alright, we’ll try. I’ll need to know where the airship was last known before it disappeared and the flight route so we have some kind of starting point.”
Dobbs worked on his computer for a few seconds and the printer made loud noises. He grabbed the paper from it. “Here.”
Kerrik stood and took the sheet. “I hope you understand that I can’t make you any promises on this. Scheherazade, you and Dominique stop at the pub and grab us some lunch. We’ll be at the house, packing and planning our flight route. Let’s go.”
Once outside, he looked down at Irena. “I wanted to take you back to Dublin today so you could say farewell to your mother and pick up any possessions you wanted to keep. It’ll have to wait.”
She nodded. “I brought a couple of changes of clothes, so I’m good. Should we be doing this?”
Eve looked around and dropped her voice. “We don’t really have any choice. If we refuse to even try, we’ll become the personal enemy of the sheriff and Pat. If we try and fail, they’ll probably still hate us. You know that, Kerrik.”
“Yeah, but what else can we do?” He shook his head. “This sucks no matter which way you look at it. And the funny bit is that even if we succeed, Patricia won’t cut us any slack if we break the law.”
Eve gave him a hard look. “They will owe us.”
He snorted. “That and five hundred SLC will get you some coffee.”
Irena giggled. “True. Do you have some way to find them?”
Kerrik looked at Eve. “What’s the maximum range on your locate objects spell?”
The Megami-sama blinked. “I have no idea.”
“Start thinking big then. Once we get on location, you’ll be looking for an airship that may be anywhere up to three hundred kilometers away.”
She looked thoughtful. “There’s a ceremonial version of the spell that Dominique and I dreamed up that we haven’t used yet, but it should be a lot more powerful than my cast one.”
“Review both versions of it completely. I don’t want to get there and have to come back for some ingredient that you left behind. We’re fighting against the clock and every minute they can be getting a half mile farther away from where we’re going to be, and that’s only if they’re still in the airship. If they’ve got a teleporting pokegirl and took everyone off, we’ll never find them.”
Twenty minutes later, Scheherazade raced north as fast as she could, Kerrik’s activated pokedex in her hand with the GPS function enabled. Meanwhile, Kerrik had changed into comfortable jeans and a tee shirt and was using the computer in his home to pull up everything publicly known about the Dawn Star.
Irena plopped into the chair next to him and kicked her legs idly. “Mother once told me that there were programs that tracked search engine requests. Do you think they’d change them to look for references to the airship?”
He nodded. “Data mining software isn’t hard to set up, which is why I’m researching the specs on several different airship designs and visiting sales sites for them. Hopefully it’ll look like I’m dreaming of owning one someday. I’ve got the money to purchase some of the older ones, so that’s not too farfetched in idea.”
The Night Nurse blinked. “You do?”
He smiled at her look of disbelief. “We are successful pokegirl hunters and we’ve caught some rare girls while out training. That and we lucked into a bit of treasure in the Edinburgh ruins.”
“I didn’t know you were pokegirl hunters. Will I get to beat up feral pokegirls?”
“We’ll see about it after you grow up.”
She smacked him on the side and he woofed loudly. “I’m the cute one, not you.”
He rubbed where she’d hit him. “Not when you do stuff like that. If I want colored skin, I’ll get a tattoo instead of more bruises.”
“You’re tough. You’ll heal.”
“I’m going to have to become kami to survive you.”
“What’s that?” She shook her head. “Never mind, what about the ferals?”
“Yes, you’ll get to beat them up. Other pokegirls, too.”
She grinned and held up her hand. Armor appeared on it as her fingers were covered with razors. “Can I slice them up?”
He gave her a cautious look. “Sure. Just don’t try them on me or your harem sisters.”
The razors vanished and Irena’s expression changed until she looked at him like a tiny adult instead of the child she usually mimicked. “I wouldn’t do that. I think there are definite limits to how much anyone can push you and I get the impression I don’t want to personally find out what happens then.” A childlike smile appeared. “But when someone outside the family is stupid enough to cross your line, can I watch?”
“You have a seriously vicious streak, you know that?”
She bobbed her head. “Uh huh.”
“As long as you are aware of it.”
“So, can I watch?”
“Sure. If you’re really nice to me, you might even get to help.”
“Thanks.” She slid out of the chair. “How long will it be until Scheherazade is in position?”
“I figure it’ll take another ten minutes or so. Be ready to go then.”
***
Scheherazade appeared in the middle of the living room. “I visited both sites and now I’ll take Eve there so she can help to ferry people. We might want Dominique to learn to teleport to improve her mobility and usefulness.”
The Archmage smiled. “Who said I can’t?”
Eve blinked. “But we had to take you to Dublin for your gear.”
“I never said that I couldn’t go there on my own. You offered to teleport me and I accepted.” She gave them a satisfied smirk. “And I really appreciated that offer since I hadn’t figured out how to go and get my stuff without giving away more of my abilities. Since I joined the harem it hasn’t come up.”
Eve was obviously trying to decide between smiling and glaring at Dominique. Finally she scowled. “What other abilities have you been hiding?”
“I haven’t hidden anything, Eve. I just haven’t sat down and put together a list of all the spells and stuff I know. That’s not going to happen, either, unless I get to read your list first.” She looked at Kerrik while Eve’s eyes narrowed. “What are the ROEs for this?”
Kerrik didn’t hesitate. “The rules of engagement are simple. I’ve been given carte blanche to kill both humans and pokegirls alike. We take prisoners only if there’s no chance of it backfiring on us. We just need to make sure we don’t accidentally kill the people we’re trying to save. If it turns out that distinguishing between the two groups is too difficult, we take everyone prisoner. What?”
Irena was looking at him with a peculiar expression. “I like the way you think and I was wondering if I could give you an infernal blessing.”
Eve shot to her feet. “Don’t you dare, you bitch!”
Kerrik’s voice rang like a shot. “Eve!” She jumped and turned to look at him. “Take a deep breath and sit down, please. First, I’m not infernal or celestial in my outlook. I’m practical. Second, those kinds of blessings don’t work on humans. Third, you don’t get to make those decisions and fourth, it was a very nice compliment and I’m flattered that Irena thinks so highly of me after only a day with us.”
Irena nodded. “I do, and since there are three celestials to my single infernal, you being fiendish would help to balance things a little.”
He frowned. “Is that important?”
“Not really, but it’s funny that it chafes her ass so much. She’s pretty fond of you.”
He sighed. “Enough. Scheherazade, take Eve and Dominique and go. We’ve got hunting to do and when we’re done we can squabble. Not before or during.” He looked at Irena as he slung his shotgun. “Is that clear?”
She saluted crisply. “Crystal clear, mon capitaine.”
The Dread Wolf vanished with her two passengers as Kerrik settled his pokepack on his back. “We’ll get you a pokepack when this is over. You’ll want it when we go on our climactic hunt.”
“What are we going to be hunting?”
“Goths.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You will. Explaining right now would take too long.”
He smiled when Dominique and Eve appeared. The Archmage took his hand. “Scheherazade is patrolling the area until we return.”
“Then let’s not keep her waiting.”
Kerrik had made the decision to have Scheherazade sweep through where the Dawn Star was supposed to be when she didn’t report and then head for where she made her last radio contact before disappearing. Since it was doubtful she’d ever gotten to the first place, starting at the last known point was a calculated risk to improve their already very slim chances of locating the missing airship.
They appeared in a stand of bushes that looked out over a grassy field. Dominique let him go as Eve appeared with Irena. Kerrik checked his shotgun as he looked around. “Any sign of the Dawn Star?”
Eve shook her head. “No, but we expected that. Scheherazade will keep watch while Dominique and I set up for the ceremony. Then everyone will be helping with it.”
Irena frowned. “What can I do to help?”
Eve regarded her solemnly. “For now, keep an eye on Kerrik and make sure he doesn’t wander off. When we perform the ceremony, you’ll be involved too.”
“Keep an eye on me? I don’t wander. I’m fully aware of just how fragile I happen to be.” He shook his head. “I’ll be over there, sulking from that insult.”
Eve was pulling things out of her pack. “That’ll be perfect. How about you sulk for about an hour unless I need you earlier than that? If you start feeling better, let me know and I’ll insult you again.”
“Eve.” When she looked up he smiled slightly. “I’m not really happy about this either, but we both know there’s no choice but to try. If I could have thought of a way out of this, I’d have taken it.” His smile turned crooked. “Besides, you want us to try and if we just run away you’ll be even unhappier with me than you are now.”
“I don’t want you here. It’s not safe.”
“I don’t want you here, either, Eve. It’s not the other’s fault that we can’t have what we want right now, so let’s make the best of it.”
“Can I get your oath that you won’t do anything stupid?”
He snorted. “We don’t use the same definitions.”
“I want you to use mine.”
“That’s not going to happen. You don’t want me to get out of bed without protection because it could be dangerous.”
She smiled widely enough to dimple. “Perhaps.”
“I’ve already given Dominique my oath not to do anything obviously suicidal unless you’re all dead. That’s going to be the best you’ll get, since you don’t think its safe here and I don’t think its safe anywhere, but I know that I’m a damn sight safer here with my harem than anywhere else without you.” He turned away as she flushed. “I guess you’ve got security, Irena. Let’s stay out of their way, but I want to be careful to stay in sight of them.”
Irena frowned. “Eve, does he know how to use that gun?” Kerrik’s eyes narrowed and he took a step away from her.
“Yes he does. In fact, he’s pretty good with it. Don’t try to take it away from him.”
Irena gave him a cute look. “You’d shoot me if I tried to take your gun?”
“In a heartbeat. You can be healed and me not being unarmed is one of those stupid things that both Eve and I agree on.”
The Night Nurse glanced at Eve in time to see her nod. “If you try to disarm him, we’re all going to be upset at you.”
The Night Nurse glanced at Eve in time to see her nod. “If you try to disarm him, we’re all going to be upset at you.”
“They’re not very useful against pokegirls.”
Kerrik shrugged. “It depends on where you shoot them. This is not up for debate, discussion or argument. I am not going to be unarmed again. Drop it.”
Irena nodded. “I just wanted to make sure that everyone agreed you can shoot. Considering that Dominique just moved behind me, I think I can safely say that’s true.”
Kerrik gave her a curious look as he nodded to Dominique to stand down. “You don’t like humans with guns?”
“If they don’t know how to use it or can’t hit what they shoot at, no.”
“Then you won’t have a problem with him.” Dominique went back to emptying her pack of essentials for the ceremony. “Now stop wasting time. The sooner this is over the sooner we can get back to what’s important to us.” She glanced at her tamer. “Why don’t you tell her about our real enemies?”
“That sounds like a good idea. Please come with me, Irena.”
***
“I still find what you’re telling me hard to believe.” Irena was leaning against a tree while he stood where he could constantly scan their surroundings.
He snorted. “You’re not alone. Until very recently, as far as I was concerned this whole place was fictional. It’s made me ask myself some rather awkward questions about whether I was just writing about things that I somehow observed or if I made things happen by writing about them. If the latter is true, then Sanctuary might be right about me having some kind of powers. It would also mean there are some really interesting places that I’d love to visit.” He rubbed his eyes and squinted at the morning sun. “The fact that I do have some powers bolsters their case.”
Her black eyes widened. “Powers? Do you mean like a blood trait?”
“No. I mean powers that humans don’t have.” At her disbelieving look he shrugged. “I’ve demonstrated the ability to recognize any pokegirl breed on sight as long as I pay attention. It also doesn’t matter how well she’s disguised, I can still spot her and identify her breed just as soon as I see her. It also turns out that I can do magic.”
“Prove it.” She jumped when a glowing ball of red light appeared in front of her and quickly pulsed through the colors of the spectrum before vanishing. “I’m not sure that proves anything since you didn’t cast a spell.”
“I don’t have to. In fact, I’m not sure I can use formulaic magic. I might be able to, but I doubt it’ll be possible without a whole lot more training in how to manipulate magic with spells. And that’s training that we don’t have time for me to get.”
“What else can you do?”
“Not much. I’m trying really hard not to do anything without supervision, at least not until I feel comfortable with what I can do.”
“I don’t understand.”
He shrugged. “The ability to do magic is like having pokegirl techniques at your command, something that you should understand.” He smiled when she nodded solemnly. “If you activate them accidentally you can hurt someone you didn’t intend to. You can hurt them to death. Magic is the same way. Cast a fireball in a pub and people will die and property will be damaged whether you did it deliberately or by accident. When you’re first learning magic is a very dangerous time. You’re still learning the rules you operate with and accidents can be deadly for both you and anyone around you. When I realized I could do magic I got cocky and tried to create some fire. What I didn’t realize was that I didn’t know how to power the attempt and I almost died.”
“So you’re being careful because you got burned.” She grinned when he chuckled.
“You have no idea. The other problem is that I’ve bound six undead to my service and there’s no way to free them from it. They’re able to read my emotions and will come without being summoned if they feel my life is in danger.” He smirked. “Fortunately they seem to define danger a lot like you would, you cute little infernal.”
Irena shook her head. “Being infernal doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that a lot of people are whiny babies and don’t know what real danger is like. I’ve seen way too many people come to my mother claiming to be on their deathbed when they’re not anywhere near it.” She cocked her head. “Can I see these undead?”
He frowned. “I don’t like the idea of just summoning them for your amusement, but I do need to let them know what’s going on.” He closed his eyes and concentrated. Irena gasped when the Dragonesses appeared in front of Kerrik. He opened his eyes and frowned when he realized that, other than their red dots for eyes, they didn’t look dead. “Ladies, are you ok?”
The largest Dragoness bobbed her head. “We are.” Her voice still echoed, but it was no longer scratchy and caressed them with warmth.
“Something changed. What happened?”
“You did. We are now bound to you. You are alive and that life gives us more of a semblance of life for ourselves. If you were to tame one of us now, in many ways it would be as if you were taming a live Dragoness.”
Kerrik went slightly green around the edges. “I’ll keep that in mind,” he said slowly. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “We’re going to assault an airship and capture some criminals. I’ll probably need your help to do so.”
“What is an airship?”
Another Dragoness looked at the speaker. “It is a flying metal shell filled with bags of helium or hydrogen. The walls are very thin and we will have to be careful not to destroy it from the inside with magic or our techniques.”
Kerrik frowned. “Do you have names?”
The lead Dragoness shook her head. “No. Ladies is nice.” The others nodded as she continued. “Who we were was stripped from us by him. We do not need identities amongst ourselves because we are so few and all know each other.” She changed topics abruptly enough that Irena blinked. “If it is as fragile as she says, destroying it would be easy. Capturing it will be more difficult, but how much so depends on what other restrictions you have.”
Kerrik smiled. “There are some terrorists holding the crew and passengers hostage. We don’t have any immediate way to discern between the two and yet we need to catch the bad guys without killing any of the good guys.”
“No one is good.”
Irena grinned. “I like the way she thinks.”
Kerrik gave the Night Nurse an annoyed glance before turning back to the Dragonesses. “I’ll agree that nobody is completely good and that nobody is completely bad. However, we’re supposed to rescue the crew and passengers without killing them if at all possible.”
The Dragoness nodded. “If you cannot tell between them, you should immobilize everyone and then sort them out.”
“I’m leaning that way myself. Will you help me with that?”
Her head tilted slightly. “You ask instead of commanding. Why?”
“I have returned your will to you and now you have personalities. Someday you may have individual identities and at that time you’re likely to judge my treatment of you.” He rolled his shoulders in what could be construed as a shrug. “And I’m never needlessly cruel to people, so I tend to treat them politely since that’s a better way to get them to do what I want. Flies and honey and all that is still a truism that works. So I ask instead of command. If you say no, then I’ll deal with it.”
The Dragonesses stirred like leaves in a wind. “You would allow us to deny you?”
“I bound you to me because I had to. That doesn’t mean I think of you as robots or other mechanisms built for my amusement. I cannot free you and if you take my life you will still not be free, but other than that, I will grant you as much free will as I can, including the power to tell me no.”
All six Dragonesses spoke at the same time. “We do not live.”
Kerrik’s skin crawled, but he kept his voice even. “That does not matter to me. You have emotions and you have volition. In life you had no choice with Ygerna, in death you had no choice with Eoghan but with me you now have choice. You can choose not to exercise that choice, but that in itself is choosing.”
The smallest Dragoness moved forward. “How could we help?”
“You know what I need. You know your abilities better than anyone else. You figure it out. Later I’d like your help with Sanctuary, but then I won’t need prisoners nearly as much.”
The biggest Dragoness’s fangs gleamed as she grinned. “We will help in both.” The others nodded.
“I am going to have to give them names,” he muttered to himself, “if only so I don’t go mad trying to keep them straight in my mind.”
“Kerrik?” It was Eve. “We’re ready.” She eyed the undead nervously. “Will they be helping with the ceremony?”
The lead Dragoness shook her head. “No. We will protect you while you work.” The other five turned and ran into the clearing as she swung around to face away from the circle and became still.
Eve watched them go before turning back to him. “Did you find the focus you wanted?”
“I did.” He held up his pokedex. In the display window was the slowly rotating image of a statue of a woman. The busty female figure it portrayed had one wing that was feathered while the other was leathery like a bat’s or Zubutt’s. One hand was gracefully feminine while the other sported long heavy claws and was covered in scales. Her legs were also mixed, with one completely human that ended in a hoof while the other was digitigrade and covered with fur. As the image swung around, it revealed one human eye sitting next to a compound lens.
Eve blinked. “What is that?”
“It’s a statue that was commissioned for the launch of the Dawn Star and serves as her bowsprit. It’s called The Perfect Pokegirl.”
“It’s grotesque.”
He nodded. “It goes way past grotesque. It goes all the way to ugly as fuck.”
“I’m not going to argue with your opinion.” She took the pokedex. “I’ll let Dominique get a good look at this.”
“Good. Bring Scheherazade in and let’s get this done.”
A few minutes later they stood in a circle holding hands. Dominique looked around the group. “I’ll be the primary caster with Eve as my backup. The rest of you are here to provide more power for the spell. Other than that, please do not try to help me. I am a trained professional.” She gave Kerrik a worried look. “Since I still don’t understand how you do magic, you work especially hard at not doing anything that could affect the spell.”
“I intend to clear my mind and keep my mouth shut.”
“You do that. Eve, you stand next to him in case he can’t do it.”
The Megami-sama smiled and moved around the circle so she could stand between him and Scheherazade. She rejoined the circle and winked at him. “You’ll be fine.” On his other side, Irena watched everything with wide eyes.
Dominique smiled slightly. “I want everyone to relax. If you need to close your eyes, that’s fine. Just don’t fall asleep on me. You may feel a faint pulling sensation through your fingers and then again you may not. Each of us here has some magical capability, even Irena since Night Nurses can use magical techniques and chibi pokegirls are inherently magical to begin with.”
Eve leaned over to whisper in his ear. “Stop that. You’re drawing power from me.”
Kerrik blinked. “Sorry.” He brought up his mental image of the magic sink and imagined it was instead slowly releasing magic into him. Immediately he felt full and it felt like his skin was tight, like it might burst if he felt any fuller. His hair stood on end and he gritted his teeth as he fought to both remain still and contain the magic.
Eve’s eyes went wide. “What are you doing?”
His voice was strained. “Just take it.” She nodded and he felt energy flow down his arm and into her hand. Her eyes began to glow softly as her fingers tightened on his until he winced and tried to pull free. She blinked and relaxed her grip slightly until the pain became bearable.
Dominique raised an eyebrow. “Is there something I need to know?”
Eve shook her head. “He’s more powerful than we thought. Get started. Just try to be too quiet for him to hear you so he doesn’t accidentally try to help and screw this up.”
Kerrik made a face. “Gee, I feel the love.” Irena giggled.
Dominique gave him a half glare. “Clear your mind, remember?”
“My mind is as clear as a politician’s after he’s been bribed.”
“I said clear, not empty.”
Kerrik chuckled. “Fine. I’m clearing my mind.”
Dominique began murmuring softly. Energy built up until the air began to vibrate around them. Glowing green particles filled the air and swirled around the group before they moved to the center of the circle and coalesced into a ball. It floated towards Scheherazade and sank into her chest. She flared brilliant green for a heartbeat and then returned to normal.
Dominique broke the circle. “Scheherazade, you are the focal point of the spell. Go and find what we search for.”
The Dread Wolf shot into the air and whipped in a tight turn before streaking west as she dropped down to treetop height. In seconds she was gone.
Kerrik shook his head. “Is there any way to estimate how long it’ll take her?”
“No.” Eve was looking in the direction Scheherazade had gone. “It could be minutes or hours.” She turned back to him. “You can stop giving power now.”
“Whoops.” He imagined the sink going back to normal operation and absorbing ambient energy for later use.
“How do you do that, anyway?”
“What do you mean?”
Eve’s eyes narrowed. “It’s a simple question.”
“Is it?” Kerrik picked up his shotgun and checked it. “How do you access the Cosmic Awareness?”
Eve’s eyes narrowed. “I just do.”
“I do the same thing.”
“There has to be a better answer than that.” Her eyes lit up. “You can show us.”
Dominique gave her a curious look. “How’s that supposed to happen?”
“He can show us through the delta bond.”
Kerrik frowned as they both gave him almost identical expressions of eagerness. “Wait a minute, ladies. What do I get for this voyage of discovery you two want to take in my head?”
Irena watched them curiously as Dominique blinked. “What do you want?” When he hesitated she smiled and raised a finger, swinging it back and forth. “Tick tock, Mr. Wolf. Tempus fugit and we must give chase.”
She wanted him to decide? He took the plunge and said what he really wanted. “I want each of you to show me how you access the Cosmic Awareness.”
Eve froze. “You want me to do what?”
“I didn’t mumble.”
“But I don’t,” Dominique began only to break off when he held up a hand.
“You are an Archmage. You access design schematics for magic items and possibly spells from the Awareness while Eve accesses the prophetic portions and possibly more. “
“You think the Awareness is sectioned off?”
He shrugged. “Probably not. It is, however, a working concept. While the description is imprecise at best, it’s a good hypothesis. It does explain why each of you only looks at specific things. I just want to understand how it’s done.”
Eve folded her arms. “How do you think we can explain it?”
“I don’t. All I want to do is observe each of you while you access the Awareness several times. In return, you can observe me while I do magic. I even know what I’m going to do.”
Dominique’s eyes widened. “What’s that?”
“I’m going to name the Dragonesses.”
“That requires magic?”
“Names can be very powerful. The names I want to give them are a holdover from another series of stories that I did and I’ve noticed that when that sort of thing comes up, sometimes odd things happen.”
“Why not give them harmless names?” Irena was frowning. “That would avoid the any odd happenings.”
Kerrik looked solemnly into the Night Nurse’s eyes. “Remember what I told you about Sanctuary? I need them to be as far from harmless as possible.” He sighed. “I need to be as far from harmless as possible and the things I could accidentally do to myself while trying to attain that scares the shit out of me.” He grimaced. “So rather than accidentally turn myself inside out or melt my organs, I’ll practice on the Dragonesses. It’s not really fair to them, but I’ll ask for their permission so I can pretend they have a choice in the matter.”
Irena was looking at the Dragoness she could see. “Where are they in relation to your bubble?”
“Honestly, I’m not completely sure yet. I’d always figured that undead would be way outside it, but if they’re developing personalities?” He shrugged. “Who knows? Since they’re bonded to me, I feel some responsibility for them.”
“Enough to tame them?”
“They say they don’t need it,” he said flatly. “And I’m not interested in fucking one of them out of curiosity. Sex is supposed to be about sharing pleasure between the people involved. If they get nothing out of it, that’s not the case with them and it isn’t sharing.”
Eve looked at him shrewdly. “It has nothing to do with the fact that they’re dead?”
He grimaced. “Of course it does. Screwing the dead is another one of my hang-ups.” He raised his voice. “Dragoness?”
She spoke without looking behind her. “What is it, master?”
“Please summon the others and have all of you assemble where you are.”
“They are on their way, master.”
“Did any of you see any ferals or anything else that needs reported to me?”
“No master.”
Dominique began muttering under her breath while watching him intently. He tried as hard as he could to ignore her.
One by one, the Dragonesses darted out of the forest around them and joined the growing line. When the last had arrived, the largest Dragoness bobbed her head. “Sir.”
Kerrik looked at Eve and Dominique. “You might want to start observing.”
The Archmage smiled broadly. “I’ve been doing that since you suggested this. I’ve also got some monitoring spells up so I can review anything that happens externally.”
He nodded and moved in front of the largest Dragoness. “Ladies, I haven’t forgotten that you said you don’t need individual names. I also haven’t forgotten that Eoghan stripped you of your identities when he made you what you are now. However, I am mortal and therefore fallible, and because of this I am having a hard time telling you six apart from one another without naming you in some fashion. I’d like to be able to do that and, so, with your permission I’d like to give you names and attempt to make each of you a little unique compared to the others. Unfortunately this involves magic and therefore you never know exactly what is going to happen. If you don’t want this, please tell me now. In order to prevent a misunderstanding on my part, I’ll require specific permission from each of you.”
“Yes.” The word issued from all six Dragonesses at the same time.
Kerrik blinked. “You don’t want to consider the ramifications?”
The largest Dragoness skinned her lips back from her teeth in what she probably thought was a smile, but came across as simply menacing. “We have. Your binding is different from his, and we recognize that you wish to help us become more alive. While we considered hating you for this, as we are still and will remain dead no matter what you do, we crave life with a hunger that the living can never understand and will take all of it that you are willing to give us. Please name us.”
“Bend down.” She did so and Kerrik touched her on the forehead with an index finger. “I name you Eirian.” Silver spread from his touch and crawled over her body, leaving her scales a bright metallic silver that glittered in the morning sun. Her head changed, the face distorting as it grew outwards to form a heavy muzzle filled with razor sharp teeth that intermeshed when her jaws closed. When the changes were complete, she was taller and more massive. Powerful wings towered above her and her tail was longer and more muscular. Her body was less human and far more draconic, with comparatively small breasts and slender hips.
The Dragonesses on either side of Eirian turned and looked at her. The red pinpoints that floated in her eye sockets focused on him as she spoke slowly and distinctly. “I am Eirian.”
Kerrik shifted sideways and touched this Dragoness. “You are Skye.” Blue spread from his finger. When her transformation was complete, her scales were the bright blue of the afternoon sky. Her new body was slightly smaller than Eirian’s, but very similar. She opened her mouth and slammed her jaws shut with a crash. “I like this form. Thank you, master.”
The next Dragoness was given the name Emerald and became a dark translucent green that seemed to have depth when you looked into it. After that came Aurum, who was a shimmering gold that scattered the sunlight around her. Beryl was crimson. It was dark enough that the red was almost black while Sable was a so black that she drank the light around her. Even her teeth and the interior of her mouth were black. Only her eyes gleamed red to break the darkness.
Kerrik looked them over with obvious satisfaction and turned to his harem. Sometime during the process Scheherazade had returned and she stood with the others. Dominique blinked several times and rubbed her eyes. “I saw and felt what you did and I think I understand some of it. But if I’m right, there’s no way in hell I’ll ever be able to do it unless you can teach me how.” Her gaze sharpened when she realized that he wasn’t paying attention. His expression was far away and he seemed to be listening to voices that only he could hear. “Kerrik!” When he didn’t respond, she ran to him and slapped him hard, the strength of her blow knocking him down.
His eyes locked on hers as they filled with anger. “What the fuck?”
“Don’t listen to them, please.” She knelt and healed the pulped lips and torn skin from her blow. As they mended, she leaned forward and looked into his eyes. “Please, for our sakes. They’re very seductive and you have to resist them or we’re all doomed.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “I’ve fought them my whole life.”
He blinked and the anger passed. “You’re right. Thanks.” He wiped at the blood on his face with his shirt. “Sorry.”
Dominique stood and pulled him to his feet. “Just don’t listen to them.” She smiled slightly. “And tell Eve not to punish me for slapping you.”
“Eve, she probably saved my life, if not the lives of everyone here.” He gave his maharani a wry look. “Remember how a person’s subconscious saves up the slights and insults so someone can think about ways to get revenge? Mine was suggesting things and Dominique thought I possibly have the power to make some of them reality and she was concerned that I was going to do what it wanted.” He shrugged when the Megami-sama gave him a mildly questioning look. “I really don’t know. She might be right. I know I have a lot of anger and that’s not a good thing. I really need to listen to the Peter Parker rule.” When she blinked he grinned. “With great power comes great responsibility. I don’t know if I really have great power, but it’s a good rule to follow even if I don’t.” His eyes flicked sideways as she nodded. “Well, Scheherazade, did you find them?”
The Dread Wolf nodded. “I did. They’re about forty five kilometers from here. The airship is anchored to a small uninhabited island off the coast of Ireland. According to the pokedex, the place is called Tory Island. It’s about twenty kilometers offshore and it would be almost impossible for anyone to find them without being able to do what we did. I can teleport Eve and Dominique to the island and then we can come back for you and Irena.”
Kerrik shook his head as he reached for his belt and the pokeballs on it. “I’m not willing to take a chance on you getting jumped because they saw you. From now on we all go together. Everyone except you and Eve will go into their balls and you and I teleport at least a kilometer off the island and fly in at low level. Eve can follow using the delta bond.”
Dominique’s eyes narrowed. “Why do I have to go into a pokeball?”
He raised an eyebrow. “Did I just get you to finally admit you can fly, too?”
She blinked and scowled at him. “Bastard.” He chuckled and she joined him. “I’ll go with Eve and follow you and Scheherazade through the delta bond.”
Kerrik nodded. “So, Irena, can you teleport and fly?”
The Night Nurse gave him an unfriendly look. “Not yet.”
Scheherazade snickered. “I don’t think you should go to her for medical aid anytime in the near future.”
Irena instantly gave her a winsome smile. “Oh, please send him to me. My professionalism won’t let me let him bleed to death, no matter how much of a jerk he was to me.”
“Will you heal him more than just the minimum to keep him alive?”
Irena looked thoughtful. “That depends on the situation and the future demands on my healing that I might anticipate at the time. I might need to conserve my resources for others.”
Eve folded her arms and spoke in a voice pregnant with threat. “You will heal him completely or you’ll be the one needing medical attention when I’m done with you. I’ve already seen what you didn’t heal from last night and I will not tolerate that when we’re in any sort of running battle. You will not play games with Kerrik’s life and any time you want to discuss my ruling, we’ll go somewhere and fight it out.”
Something in her tone made Irena blanch. “I’ll keep that in mind, my alpha.”
“In private it’s maharani and I’m glad you understand what will happen to you if you fail in this.”
Kerrik held up his hand. “If we can skip the death threat phase of this talk, Night Nurses can summon wings with their armor and they can fly. They can also learn dark and magic techniques and so she might know teleport and some form of magical flight. I was not being an asshole when I asked. Irena, I don’t know what you can and can’t do.”
She nodded. “Was that an apology?”
“No, it wasn’t. The fact that you took offense at my question was your fault, not mine. I don’t owe you an apology.”
“I could still hope for one.”
He pulled her pokeball from his belt. “Yes you could.” She vanished into the containment beam. “Let’s go.”
**
Kerrik Wolf - Tradesman
Eve - Megami-sama (alpha)
Dominique - Blessed Archmage
Scheherazade - Dread Wolf
Irena- Chibi Night Nurse