Into the Fire
Fourteen
Iain settled down in front of the console and glanced over his shoulder at Scheherazade. “You know what to do if this goes sour, right?”
The Dread Wolf nodded. “I fire an attack, grab you and we run.”
He looked behind her at the crowd of people in the room outside the tiny door of their com booth. “You’ll do nothing of the sort. We’re inside the bloody Dundalk pokegirl center, which just so happens to be filled with tamers young enough to still be suckling their mommy’s teat. All you’ll do is grab me and run. We’ll go to the first rendezvous and there we kill anyone who manages to follow us before we can teleport again. We’ll let the Blue League kill these kids if they’re so inclined.”
“Yes sir.”
He turned back to the console and activated the privacy shield before punching in a code. A young man’s face appeared. “Minister Harris’ office. How may I help you?”
“Purple tequila sunrise.”
The man’s eyes widened and he nodded quickly. “May I ask who is calling?”
“No, you may not.”
The man nodded again. “She’s in a meeting right now and so it may take a few minutes for her to receive the message that you’re calling.”
“I just gave you a priority code. If it takes more than three minutes to find her, she’s going to miss my call.” He pressed a button on his dex and it began counting down from a hundred and eighty seconds. “You have three minutes.” The league could track the call in much less than three minutes, but Dominique and Eve had estimated that it would take at least four minutes for a reaction team to get to where he was.
And that was only if they wanted to send one. There was no guarantee that they did, but it wasn’t a chance he was willing to take. Harris could also come on and stall for a reaction team to arrive, but Scheherazade was on alert for just such a possibility.
There were less than thirty seconds remaining on the countdown when Deputy Minister Harris appeared in the display. She eyed him curiously while giving a half bow. “Good morning, Mr. Wolf.”
He bowed back. It had become the electronic equivalent of a handshake in the new digital age. “Minister Harris.”
She regarded him curiously. “To what do I owe the pleasure of this call?”
“Minister, I am aware that the Blue League has taken possession of more than one ebony stone and I would like to make the necessary arrangements to pick up the one we agreed I’d get.”
Her eyes narrowed. “How did you come by this information?”
“Minister, I just know these things.” He gave her a friendly smile and leaned forward excitedly. “Now, I’d like to take possession of one of the stones as soon as possible. What do I need to do?”
She gave him an apologetic smile in return. “Mr. Wolf, the stones have been turned over to our researchers. I’m afraid I’m not authorized to release one of them to you. Now, once you’ve helped us to gather a sufficient number of them, I’m sure that eventually something can be arranged for you to bring in your pokegirl to be evolved.”
Iain and his harem had put their heads together and gamed out twelve different scenarios that could come out of any discussion he had with Minister Harris about getting an ebony stone.
This was option number four.
Iain let his smile congeal. “Minister Harris, if you aren’t authorized to give me what we agreed upon as my price for aiding you, then you shouldn’t have been authorized to negotiate that price with me in the first place.” She blinked at his tone and her cheeks reddened. “Who is authorized to give me a stone, or are you merely trying to politely tell me that I’m not going to get one?”
“Like I just said, Mr. Wolf, when we have enough stones, we’ll make the arrangements for you to bring in your pokegirl to be evolved.”
Iain suddenly smiled broadly. “Minister Harris, are you authorized to negotiate those arrangements?” His tone was very whimsical and Scheherazade gave him a hard glance before going back to watching the room. When he became whimsical it was difficult to gauge what he was going to do next and sometimes things went odd.
Harris nodded. “I am.”
“So you’re authorized to set things up so I can come in and use up a stone but not so I can come in and take physical possession of a stone.”
She nodded. “That’s right, Mr. Wolf.”
“You know, Lindsey, I think you have more power than you think you do. I think you’re one of the most powerful people in the Blue League today. I think that if you want something to happen, then it does. I think that means you don’t really want me to have a stone and I think that means you feel that you’ve gotten enough intelligence from the Sanctuary Goths I’ve already helped you to find that you no longer need my help.”
Harris looked shocked. “Mr. Wolf, I assure you that we most certainly still want your help.”
“And yet you’re not willing to keep to our agreement. We had an agreement that I would get an ebony stone for my own use, whatever that use was. There was nothing about you keeping a stone and deigning to let me use it on a pokegirl. That even assumes that I intended to use it as an evolutionary tool instead of a lure for Sanctuary. That’s a much more likely option considering my opinion of the Goths.”
“You never said what you wanted it for,” Harris pointed out.
“No, and I said I wouldn’t explain it and you accepted it when we made our agreement.”
“I think our agreement needs to be renegotiated.”
“Of course you do. You’ve already gotten a lot of what you wanted, haven’t you? That’s a perfect time for you to renegotiate our agreement. Not so much for me. I think we already had a perfectly good agreement that you just abrogated. I don’t have to have an ebony stone and I guess I’ll make my way without having one.”
“Wait just a minute,” she began.
Iain cut her off. “I hope you’re right and that you don’t need my help any more. I like parts of the Blue League and, at the time, that liking is why I chose it and wrote it to make it the way that it is. Some of it I’d redo if given a chance, but maybe I’ll look into that when I get home. However, for the time being, I don’t think I’ll be helping you hunt Sanctuary Goths anymore. If and when you change your mind about honoring our agreement so we can go back to working together, feel free to send me a message.” He cut the connection as she opened her mouth to speak and slid to his feet. “Shay, it’s time to go.”
***
Eve gave him a slightly cross look. “We didn’t need the stone anymore. Did you have to tweak her tail before you told her we were done?”
Iain shrugged. “I don’t like people who break their word to me. It’s one of the odd issues I happen to have. Besides, if she’d given over the stone, I wouldn’t have had a problem continuing to help remove all of the Sanctuary Goths from Blue while we work up for our next step.”
“Excuse me!”
He grinned. “Sorry, Irena, I meant the bad Sanctuary Goths.”
“That’s better.”
“Besides, having another ebony stone might come in useful. You never can tell what kind of interesting use for one we might find. Hell, it’ll even function as a doorstop, unlike an oil stone. Oil stones tend to leave streaks on the floor from the oil.”
Eve shook her head slowly. “A doorstop? So we’re done with the league?”
“Unless they honor our agreement and give me an ebony stone, yes, we are.”
“Would you be hurt if I said that it was a good thing?”
He chuckled. “Not since I agree with that sentiment. What’s the status on April?”
“She’s put in her notice and the town has already rented her home from her for the couple who are going to replace her. They’re a married pair of humans. One is an actual doctor while the other is a nurse. The nurse will be working at the center while her pregnancy progresses and training their Milktit to work at the center after her delivery. He’ll be taking shifts and also setting up a medical practice for the townspeople, who are excited to have a real doctor around along with their resident Nursejoy.”
“When will she be joining us permanently?”
“Tomorrow.” Eve refilled her teacup. “After that we can begin training with the full harem. I don’t know how long it will take to get her and Irena up to speed and finish integrating both of them into the harem’s tactics, but since we can focus exclusively on training, I expect us to make rapid progress.”
“That’s great news.” Iain pushed away from the table. “As soon as April gets here permanently, we’ll be heading out to do some hunting and train.”
***
Around the crackling fire sat Iain and his harem in a loose circle. They were holding hands and their eyes were closed. They all breathed in unison as they trained together in dreamtime. Abruptly their breathing changed, diverging as their eyes opened. Irena broke the circle and held her head. “I know I didn’t really do anything with my body, but everything hurts.”
Iain poked Scheherazade. “According to my pokedex we were under for about forty seconds, and I know the Dragonesses are keeping watch, but check the area please.”
The Dread Wolf nodded and shot into the air as Eve patted Irena on the shoulder. “It always feels that way. Iain says it’s a side effect of the pseudo reality that dreamtime creates. Dominique thinks that if dreamtime could be improved a little, it would create a pocket reality that we could actually enter.”
Irena blinked. “Considering how many times she splattered me all over the landscape, I think I’ll pass on one I can actually be in.”
Eve flashed a tired smile. “Me too, but it would allow us to train with the Dragonesses without leveling the forest around us. For some reason, the undead cannot go into dreamtime with the living. I’m not very sure that they can go into it without us, either.”
“Well, until and unless Dominique gets that modified version working, we’ll be leveling the forest and catching whatever we flush from it.” Iain pushed to his feet and rubbed his face. “We know this area isn’t under the control of any queendom, so as long as we put out any fires, I don’t care what we do to the trees or the hillsides.”
Dominique shrugged from where she sat. “I’m working on an improved dreamtime, but it’s not my highest priority right now. The survival gear is.”
Iain jumped when a voice came from behind him. “You do not trust our guard of you?”
He turned to see Eirian. The silver Dragoness was watching him with a neutral expression that still managed to radiate irritation. “Scheherazade’s sweep has nothing to do with that. I am the squishiest person here by a very great deal and I feel that second checking can’t hurt. Nobody is perfect.”
Eirian’s head cocked and she nodded abruptly. “True. Shall I assemble the others for training?”
“Please. Scheherazade will be back from her sweep by then.”
A few minutes later everyone stood in a circle around Iain. “Ok, we’re going to start by jumping directly into the deep end of the pool. Irena is going to use her aura of command on all of us and we’ll see what happens. Please remember that this is to establish a baseline for future experimentation, which means I don’t want Irena to hold anything back and I want all of us to do everything we can to resist it, short of actually attacking Irena. Later on we’ll work on attacking the Goth producing the effects as a method of stopping her.”
“Damn, that’s going to hurt,” Irena muttered.
“Probably, but you’ll get to attack them back while using your auras, so it’ll be more interesting than having you stand around like a lump.”
“I’ll also need to practice this in my adult form. That’ll be more stress for me.”
Dominique smiled. “Think of it as good practice on your concentration.”
The chibi Sanctuary Goth scowled. “Why did I agree do evolve?”
“You wanted a delta bond with Iain, remember?”
“That’s right. He’d better be worth it.”
Iain nodded. “Five minutes for piss and drink break and then we train.”
Sable twisted her head slightly and looked at Eirian as the harem scattered. The Dragonesses, as Iain had conjectured but not yet proven, could communicate on a level that the living couldn’t detect. Is there a way that we can have a delta bond with him too? We are his in ways that they will never be and deserve it more than they do.
When we return to our demesne we will begin investigating. From the others came a united feeling of agreement. We will continue this research until we have a way to either create a delta bond or reasonable substitute. Then we will implement it.
A few moments later Irena faced the others and concentrated. “Kneel.” Her aura of command swept over the group. A minute passed and when nobody moved, her eyes narrowed and she redoubled her efforts. “Kneel!”
April swayed briefly, but steadied herself. “Fuck you,” she spat from between gritted teeth. Scheherazade’s ears were flat and she growled softly.
Irena’s fists clenched and her face turned red from effort. “I SAID KNEEL!”
April and Scheherazade went to one knee while Eve shook her head muzzily. Dominique was muttering something softly to herself.
Iain waited another minute. “That’s enough, Irena.”
The chibi relaxed and staggered as she gasped for air. “That took a lot out of me. It has to be easier for Sanctuary Goths or they’d never get anything done with it.”
“You’re still learning how to use it, and that without a teacher.” Iain helped April to her feet. “I suspect you’ll get stronger with practice. Ok, tell me what everyone felt.”
Eirian and the other Dragonesses were their normal stillness as she spoke. “We felt nothing. Why is that?”
Iain looked thoughtful. “Traditional undead are immune to most psychic abilities. Apparently you can’t even feel them.” He grinned. “That’s going to be a severe shock to the Goths.” The grin faded. “I could feel Irena’s command, but only insomuch as in knowing that she was doing it. It was like someone was whispering in my ears and I didn’t feel any desire to obey her. April?”
The Duelist sighed. “I’m sorry I was weak.”
He hugged her tightly. “Did I say anything about weakness? Irena was about to blow a gasket when she finally got through to you. What did you experience?”
“It was this urge to obey, and I could hear a voice telling me that there was no harm in doing what she wanted and that I’d feel better if I did so. At the end, the voice was yelling so loud I couldn’t hear anything else and the urge was just so strong I couldn’t fight it anymore. It did get quieter once I obeyed.”
Scheherazade touched April on the shoulder. “I failed to resist her too, and I am not weak. Neither are you, sister.”
Eve nodded. “I felt it too, but it was never so strong that I couldn’t resist. However, Dominique and I are a lot older than you two and we’ve been through a lot of battles where willpower was the edge that assured victory.”
Dominique smiled when he looked at her. “I was using a mantra that I learned from the Order. It was to resist magical compulsions from outsiders, but I most often used it to resist commands from the knights who thought I was to be their play toy. It also lessens the effects of magic or psychic conditioning and can actually keep an L5 from being effective. Needless to say, the league has no idea that this technique exists. I’m willing to teach it to everyone else.”
Eve regarded her for several seconds before speaking. “I think that would be a good idea.”
“Don’t give me that look, Eve. You’ve got a lot of techniques that you have either not thought to teach or are intentionally keeping to yourself.”
“I do not.”
“Would you care to repeat that under a truth spell with Iain as the detector?” Eve’s eyes narrowed and Dominique smirked broadly. “I didn’t think so.”
Eve gave her a quick glare before turning to Iain. “Now it’s time to play torment Iain.”
He blinked. “Bloody fucking hell. Well, everyone else gets to have fun.” A glowing ball of light appeared in front of him and moved to hang a few feet from his right side. The light began to slowly pulse through the range of the spectrum. “I’m ready.”
“That’s what you think,” Irena yelled as she ran across and shoved him sideways. For the next several minutes Iain was shoved around, yelled at and smacked in an effort to shake his concentration and make the globe vanish.
The Dragonesses watched without comment until finally Sable stalked forward. “I will end this.” With a sweep, her tail knocked Iain’s feet out from under him and on the backswing she nailed him in the face with the tip. Blood sprayed in a thin line as he was smashed backwards. “There.”
Eve pounded past her. “Bitch.” She knelt and checked Iain out. “Hold still, your jaw is broken.” Light flared as she began healing him.
Beryl’s laugh pealed. “Sable has failed.”
“What?” The black Dragoness whirled and hissed loudly at the sight of the globe still hanging in midair. “He is a human,” she growled. “I know that I did not hit him hard, but humans are soft and do not have the concentration to keep spells going through even the mildest combat.”
Iain spat blood and slowly sat up, carefully assisted by Eve. “What do you think kept me whole while that fucking Goth bitch was torturing me? Only by focusing on something far away let me survive those whores and their abuse.” His voice was a growl.
“I have been tempered in the fires of the abyss and you hitting me was nothing compared to that.”
Sable snorted. “Are you saying that you’ll die before you break?”
“I don’t know, but I’ll damned well try not to do either.”
The Dragoness wasn’t done. “A ball of light will not keep you alive. You must be able to fight.”
“I’m working on that. The idea was to test my concentration before trying to teach me combat spells. Since I seem to have to learn to do things differently than anyone here, it’s best if I don’t fail in mid effort and have a horrible accident.” He glanced at Eve. “Is my work today good enough to proceed yet?”
She kissed his cheek. “I think so. Since I’ve seen you mimic things some of us can do, we’ll probably start by trying to teach you spells that mimic pokegirl techniques and branch out from there.”
“Sounds good.”
***
“You wanted to see me?” Iain stopped at the bottom of the basement steps. Dominique ruled her lab with an iron fist and had been very short with anyone who randomly wandered down to see what was going on. Short meaning that she’d taken off one of Scheherazade’s ears when the Dread Wolf had came in unannounced. Only Eve was welcome in the lab and that when Dominique wanted her help. Being a person who valued his own personal space and privacy, Iain had respected her lair and left it alone.
He took a second to look around and admire the place. It had a small smithy and glassblowing station. Next to that was a heavy worktable with a massive vise and a bunch of esoteric looking tools sitting next to what he recognized as regular wood and stone working implements. Another table held glass beakers and what looked like a small stone cauldron. Shelves lined most of the walls and held various pieces of equipment that he had no immediate name for. The place was brightly lit with magical lights regularly placed over the ceiling that flooded the place with natural light.
Most of what was down here was interesting just because it was interesting. However, what he found the most intriguing was that none of this stuff had been here before they moved in to the house in Dingle and nobody had purchased any of it or helped to move it into Dominique’s lab, leaving the large question of where it had come from unanswered.
When he’d asked Dominique about it, she’d just given him a mysterious smile and winked before dragging him off for a taming session that had thoroughly distracted him. It seemed to happen every time he asked, so the result had been him asking on a fairly regular basis.
He’d kind of given up on ever getting an answer to his question, but the sex was fun and Dominique liked having the extra attention.
Dominique waved to him from where she stood at a table. “Over here, Iain.” She gave him a slight smile as she watched him head towards her. “Are you going to ask?”
He chuckled. “I’ll put it off for a better time.”
“Good. This is important.” She handed him a military style canteen. “Here you go. It wasn’t easy to do from just your description, but I managed to create it. The canteen has been treated and is now unbreakable. I even tested it with the Dragonesses. They broke a lot of teeth on it for me.” She snorted. “Of course, the hyperbeam kicked it so far into the forest that I thought we’d never find it again.”
Iain turned it over in his hands. “You actually created a decanter of endless water. That’s great.”
“No, I didn’t. I’m still working on the water version. That’s the one you told me the other story about. You remember, the story you mentioned from the Castle Greyhawk module about Poppinfarsh the bread golem and the gummy werebears.”
He blinked. “I told you,” he broke off and stared at the canteen. “Why did you make this?”
“I thought it would be better than water.”
“And what if we need to wash off and the decanter is the only thing we’ve got? None of you have water techniques.”
“Eve and I both have water spells, but I understand what you’re saying. I hadn’t thought about that and I’ll redouble my efforts on the water canteen, which I never decided to not make.” She handed him a sheet of paper. “Here are the command words.”
“You actually made a decanter of endless lemonade? There is no demi-elemental plane of lemonade as far as I know.”
Dominique shrugged. “Apparently there is. You said that Castle Greyhawk was canon and apparently you were right. That meant there has to be a demi-elemental plane of lemonade.” She handed him an empty beaker. “Give it a try. Without using any of the command words, you can still pour from it without it ever emptying.”
Without a word, Iain unscrewed the cap of the canteen and tilted it over the beaker. Yellow liquid filled with slices of lemon and bits of ice poured from the canteen into the glass container. He stopped when the beaker was almost completely full and gently shook the canteen. It gurgled heavily. “It still sounds full.” He started lift the beaker to his lips and paused. “This beaker is clean, right?”
Dominique’s grin was blindingly white against her black skin. “Except for the contact poison, yes.”
“If that’s all there is.” He drank deeply. “Wow, that’s pretty fucking sweet. Unless that’s the contact poison I taste, we could boil this stuff down for the sugar.”
“I did, as a test. There’s about two and a half cups of sugar in every gallon. When we retire, we could go into sugar production with that thing. More importantly, if it’s all you have, you won’t have to worry about scurvy or electrolyte loss as long as you eat the lemon in your drink along with the liquid. That’s still a problem with water.”
He snorted. “If nothing else, it’ll definitely distract any pokegirl with a sweet tooth.”
Dominique nodded. “True. As far as the water decanter goes, I wasn’t going to worry about the salt water side, but you reminded me that salt loss may be an issue where we’re going.”
“When will you be finished with it?”
“It shouldn’t take more than a week or so. If I get a break from the training and can work down here full time, it’ll take about three days.” She gave him a hopeful look.
He ignored it. “A week is fine.”
“If you’re going to be that way, I may not find a suitable taming surface the next time you ask me about where this stuff came from.”
“Does that mean you’ll answer the question?”
She gave him an innocent look. “Why don’t you ask and find out.”
So he did.
***
Eve began healing the scratches down his back. “I take it she didn’t answer your question?”
He just gave her a foolish grin. “Nope. I’ll just have to try again later.”
“Do you have to sound so eager about it?”
“Hey, I spend plenty of time with everyone, or is there something I haven’t been told?” He shot her a curious look over his shoulder.
“No, there isn’t. We’re all happy with the attention we get from you.” Eve leaned down, kissed him between the shoulder blades and smirked as he twisted to get away from the tickling sensation. “Not that any of us would complain at more attention. You can put your shirt back on unless you want to be late for our appointment.”
“Heaven forbid.” A few minutes later they headed through Dingle until they turned onto a winding path that led from town to a neat home with a large field on one side.
A solid looking man in his mid thirties opened the door when Iain knocked. He was swarthy from the sun and dark lines on his shorn head showed he shaved it to hide his encroaching baldness. “Mr. Grey?”
Iain nodded. “Mr. Jenkins.”
Jenkins stepped out of the doorway and shut the door behind him. “I’d invite you in since Megan has already set some tea and biscuits on the table, but I thought we’d look at the woods first.”
“That would be fine, Mr. Jenkins.”
Jenkins led them around the house, stopping at the field. He pointed at the woods that ran along the field line. “I’m getting ferals coming out of there to pinch my crops and I don’t like it. Besides, I’m doing well enough that I can afford to expand the farm this season. So I want you to destroy that section of forest. I want it leveled to the ground and any stumps pulled. Then you can pile up the wood and burn it. I’d tell you to sell it, but the village has a woodcutter and he gets pretty nasty when he thinks someone is competing with him. He’s caused some serious trouble for the people who cross him.”
Iain smiled slightly. “Trouble is relative, but I don’t see a reason to court any more if I don’t have to.”
Edward Jenkins gave him a curious look. “More?”
“What?”
“You said more trouble. That says you’ve had some.”
“Oh.” Iain shrugged. “I guess I did. Well, life always has some trouble in it. Keeps the boredom down when you’re on the road and hopefully you’ll run out of trouble before you retire and settle down.”
Jenkins was one of those people with eyes that seemed to miss nothing. “Perhaps Scarlatti wouldn’t be able to give you as much trouble as I’d first thought, but he has a long memory and when this field is finished the other people will still need firewood, so unless you intend to become our woodcutter,” he trailed off suggestively.
Iain shook his head. Apparently Scarlatti wasn’t well liked. “No, I’m a hunter most of the time.”
“Why are you doing this?” Jenkins swept his hand over the field. “This isn’t hunting.”
“I’m just trying to be neighborly. You don’t have pokegirls who can do this or they already would have, and I do.”
Jenkins gave him a thoughtful look. “They’re wrong, aren’t they?”
“I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Everyone says you’re city, but you aren’t, are you?”
“Hell no, I’m country born and bred. I spent some time in cities, but the country is in my blood and I couldn’t stay away for long.”
Jenkins grinned and clapped him on the back. “What’s your name, Grey?”
“Iain.”
“That’s a good name. You don’t sound Irish, Iain.”
“I’m part Irish, through both of my parents.” It was the truth. “I wasn’t born in Ireland, though.”
“We’ll, that’s still better than people like Scarlatti.” Jenkins looked the woods over. “How long do you think it’ll be before you can get started?”
“I’ll take Eve home and get the rest of my harem. We’ll see how far we’ve gotten by sunset. If we’re not done by then, we’ll be back to finish up tomorrow.”
Jenkins nodded. “It’s an unusual man who has a Megami-sama and doesn’t have a pocket full of pain.”
Eve gave him a startled look until Iain took her hand. “Then I’m not unusual at all, but the truth is that very little of it comes from Eve,” he said amusedly. “Most of it I had before we met and she helps me to mitigate it.”
“Do you think you’ll find peace here in Dingle?”
“Mr. Jenkins, sometimes a man has to just hope for the best and make plans for the worst.”
“Very wise words, Mr. Grey. When you get done for the day, come inside and instead of tea, you’ll share supper with us.” Jenkins headed for the back door. “Let me know if you run into any trouble with clearing the wood.”
“I will.”
***
The Red Eyes Black Dragon wasn’t as large as the anime had led him to see it as being, but it was a good twenty feet tall and when it took hold of a tree, that tree came out of the ground. April had summoned three of them and two Luster Dragons. Between them and the armored Scheherazade, removal of the trees was proceeding quickly. Behind them, Eve and Dominique cut brush and dragged everything to the furiously burning pyre the Archmage had started while Irena kept an eye on Iain and brought water and lemonade when someone signaled.
By using strong pokegirls to pull the trees from the ground instead of merely cutting them down, it allowed them to make only one clearing pass, instead of having to come back and remove the stumps later. The ground would still be full of roots until plowed a couple of times, but that was a problem Jenkins would have to deal with.
Iain stood sentry over the operation. His pokegirls trusted him to stay alert for ferals either attacking or fleeing the area. In either case, work stopped briefly when he signaled and the pokegirls were captured. This close to town, the pickings had been lean, but a family group of nearly a dozen Eva had led them a merry chase before being captured. Three of these were kits, and Iain had made a mental note to try and get rid of the group as a single unit to a league accredited ranch that liked to raise the squirrel pokegirl breed.
Hunters like him did get the sale bonus from the Scorecard program, but since they weren’t eligible to battle for badges they didn’t accumulate points.
April gasped as fire burped over one of the Red Eyes and it vanished. Simultaneously, lighting sprayed another and it popped like a balloon. The Duelist staggered under the feedback. A second later an icebeam smashed the last construct while another lightning bolt knocked Scheherazade sideways. The two Luster Dragons vanished when April recalled them to save her life energy.
The creature that knocked aside a tree and strode into the cleared area stood over seven feet tall and was covered rust colored fur. It spread large bat wings and lashed its tail as the three heads on its shoulders roared a challenge.
“CHIMERA!” Iain slipped his shotgun off his shoulder and froze as the head on the tail swung around to snarl at him.
Irena stepped forward. “Over here, bitch.” Her aura of love pulsed to get the Chimera’s attention. When all four heads pivoted to look at her, she lashed out with her aura of command. “SIT, BITCH!”
The Chimera’s knees wobbled under the command and the Lioness head let lose a torrent of flame aimed at the chibi.
“Covered!” Dominique put her hand on Irena’s shoulder and used the Sanctuary Goth as a conduit for her absorb ability. The flames washed over both of them and were sucked into the pair to vanish, leaving both covered with soot and minor burns.
Scheherazade hammered into the Chimera from behind, her armored form slashing wildly at the feral’s back and wings with silver claws. The tail breathed a spray of poison over the silver form attacking her even as the goat head twisted around and used an ice beam attack on the Dread Wolf at point blank range.
The instant Scheherazade was blasted off the Chimera; April hit it with a bolt of fire from one of her cards. The flying type screeched in pain and fury before responding with a flamethrower attack from the Lioness head that went wide as Eve smashed it with thunderbolt.
The Chimera took a step backwards and spread her wings, vaulting into the air as she sprayed lighting and ice over Iain. His armor held, but he was knocked prone as Scheherazade grabbed one wing with her telekinesis. The Chimera pivoted around the held point like a pinwheel and slammed faces first into the dirt. Her snake tail roared in fury as the Chimera levered herself up on her hands and her other three heads spat dirt and grass.
The dark bomb that Irena launched sailed under the Chimera’s chest and detonated, blasting her into the air. Scheherazade slammed into her from above, driving the flying type pokegirl back into the ground. When she rolled free, the legs and tail of the Chimera lay still.
Iain’s pokeball took the Chimera’s arm and she vanished into the containment beam. A few seconds passed and the pokeball shattered with a loud crack as its occupant fought her way free. “Mother fucker,” he muttered and then raised his voice. “Pound on her some more, ladies.”
Scheherazade drove her armored talons into the Chimera’s back and ripped sideways in a gout of blood. Lightning blasted her off the Chimera as April’s Nin-ken Dog buried its katana a foot deep in the chest of the Chimera. Lighting from the feral blasted the construct out of existence even as the Chimera’s Billie head went limp. Iain threw another pokeball.
This one held.
Scheherazade landed in front of Irena as her armor melted away. “That last lighting blast burned through my armor and into my stomach,” she hissed through clenched jaws.
The Sanctuary Goth looked the injury over before placing her hands over the injury. Scheherazade gasped in pain. “It’s not as bad as it feels, but you’ll be all right in a minute.” She glanced over her shoulder. “Dominique, please set up the PPHU. I’d like everyone cycled through it so we’re all back at full strength in case something like that happens again.” Her eyes flicked to Iain’s. “Do you agree, sir?”
“You’re still the team medic and I think it’s a great idea. Scheherazade goes first with Eve last.”
Eve looked Iain over. “Are you hurt?”
“Not even a scratch, my dear. The armor did its job wonderfully.” He frowned. “I don’t think she’s insane or possibly even completely feral. She had enough presence of mind to target me as the most dangerous target even though I was the only person to not attack her. That means she can identify tamers.”
Eve blinked. “Do you think she has a tamer?”
“I really hope she doesn’t, because if he let her attack us a serious ass kicking is in order. That was one tough bitch.”
“Do you want to keep her?”
“I’m allergic, remember?”
“I know that’s not true.”
He shrugged. “So I lied to that ranch owner, big fucking deal. I’m not big into cat pokegirls. Even if I were, I wouldn’t want a Chimera in my bed. They need really serious restraints and I’m not into fucking tied up women unless they like it. If she showed the slightest dislike for the restraints and she probably would, eventually I’d try something stupid, like trying to tame her without them so she’d be happier. Then I’d get hurt.”
Eve frowned. “You do have a distinct tendency to try anything for your girls,” she said thoughtfully. “I can see you doing that too. So she gets sold?”
“She gets sold.” Iain grimaced. “I never thought I’d be a slaver, but she’ll go on to kill people if she hasn’t already done so. Is it bad that sometimes I wonder if we shouldn’t just kill them all instead of selling them?” He gave her an odd look. “If I thought that it would be better for them?”
Eve smiled and kissed him gently. “It’s not and you know it. You’re just conflicted.”
“I know nothing of the sort. I know they claim they are better off when tamed, but they can lie and who knows how happy they are while feral.” He rubbed his eyes. “However, I can only go with what they tell people.”
She nodded. “True enough. As soon as everyone has been healed, I’ll put them back to clearing the woods.”
“Mr. Grey, that was impressive.” It was Jenkins and an Iron Chef, cautiously approaching now that the area was safe. “I had no idea there was a Chimera in the area.”
Iain frowned. “It looked pretty enough, but we still need to work on coordinating our attacks more.” Beside him, Eve nodded unconsciously. “If she’d been aware, we could easily have had someone get more seriously hurt than Scheherazade did.”
“I wasn’t that badly hurt.” The now healed Dread Wolf moved up to stand nearby. “Sir.”
“For which I am very grateful.”
Scheherazade lolled her tongue in a canine grin. “Me too. Eve, Irena is waiting for you.”
“I’ll be right back.” The Megami-sama headed for the improvised aid station.
Iain smiled at Jenkins. “This won’t hold us up for long and I don’t see it affecting our timetable very much, if at all.”
“That’s good to hear. Don’t forget that invitation to dinner. We can’t feed all of your pokegirls, but feel free to bring your alpha.”
Iain looked startled for an instant. “We’ll try to be there, Mr. Jenkins.” He watched Jenkins and the Iron Chef as they headed back to their house. “Remind me to forget about his invitation and work past dark. Either my family eats with me, or they eat with me at home.”
“His pokegirl is probably looking forward to having others compliment her on dinner,” Scheherazade said quietly. “Iron Chefs are very proud and it would insult her if you, as you put it, ditched her invitation. I can speak for the others when I say that we won’t mind if it’s just you and Eve. We all know you aren’t neglecting us.”
“I’ll think about it. We may be living here for a while longer and you could be right.”
“Eve will say the same thing I am.”
He sighed. “I know.”
“Thank you for not shooting into the fight.”
“There are a lot of pokegirls that a shotgun slug will impress. Chimeras aren’t really one of them unless I can pulp her heart with the first round. Drawing her attention to me would have just distracted you ladies and made you lower your defenses to protect my mangy carcass. I won’t do anything that will imperil you more than you already are.”
“Logic? From you?”
“Hey, I kill far more than my fair share of Catgirls.”
Her ears flicked and her eyes widened. “I don’t understand. I’ve never seen you kill a Catgirl.”
He smiled suddenly. “Sorry. There’s a saying where I come from which says that every time you inject logic into the pokegirl universe, God kills a Catgirl. It’s a double nested joke. Logic doesn’t have to apply where magic is involved and there is no logic in killing something because someone uses logic. Therefore using logic is actually illogical.”
Scheherazade began chuckling. “It’s actually a triple nested joke since there are those you feel you and the other writers are gods. Therefore, every time you use logic, you kill a Catgirl.”
He blinked. “Suddenly I grok. I art God.”
“What’s grok?”
“Bloody hell. This may take a while.”
***
Eve put her hand on his shoulder and stopped him. “This is a really bad idea.”
“I disagree.”
“Staying for dinner won’t offend the others.”
He shrugged. “No, but it will offend me. Look, you’re invited too. If you want, you can stay and have dinner with them.”
Eve looked shocked. “I can’t do that.”
“Why not?”
“He only invited me because I’m your maharani.”
“And therein lies the problem. Pokegirls are good enough to fight the battles for humanity, they’re good enough to keep their homes,” his voice began to rise, “they’re good enough to fuck and bear children for the humans and yet they’re not good enough to have at the dinner table? That philosophy makes them less than human and I disagree with it.” He rubbed his eyes wearily. “Look, I’m not going to challenge him over it since this is his home and his rules should apply. I’m going to just tell him that I don’t feel good.”
“If that’s your policy, you must eat alone most of the time, Mr. Grey.” It was Jenkins and his Iron Chef. The pokegirl was glaring at Iain and Jenkins didn’t look too happy. “I wasn’t aware you were a believer in parity.”
Iain chuckled softly. “I’m not. Parity is impossible. It’s one of the two cornerstones of this reality. Pokegirls will always have to be tamed and therefore they’ll never be equal to us since we’ll always have that to hold over them. It’s just that either pokegirls are people or we’re all committing bestiality by fucking animals that just happen to be able to bear our children. I don’t intend any insult to you or Megan. I honestly appreciate the invitation to dinner and I’m sure I’ll be missing a fantastic repast, but I want to eat as many meals as I can with my family and if they can’t all be at your table, I’d rather eat at mine. After all, we all die someday and usually we don’t get much warning about it.”
Jenkins regarded him for nearly a minute before nodding. “You do carry the pain that a man with a Megami often has. Will you return tomorrow to finish clearing the land?”
“I plan to, unless you forbid us.”
“Then I’ll see you in the morning, Mr. Grey. I bid you good night.”
“Good night, Mr. Jenkins.”
Eve waited until they were headed down the path towards the road. “What is the other cornerstone of this reality?”
“Humans are the squishy ones.”
***
Iain turned away from the counter and handed out credit chips, carefully giving one of them to each member of his harem. “Here you go, ladies. You can spend what’s on your chip however you want, but I’m not a some newbie tamer and when that’s gone, all the whining in the universe will avail you none. You are all wonderful, but I do not have bottomless pockets and you’re not going to spend everything I have.”
Irena grinned underneath her hat. “I’ve seen a lot of tamers do just that.” Dominique had made her a necklace that would cause her to scan as a Night Nurse. This allowed the Sanctuary Goth go out into public with the others without fear of being discovered. “And with the chips you don’t get us coming back all the time for your approval.”
April snorted. “You’ve seen a lot of that? I’ve seen tamers spend all their money on frippery for pokegirls they lose the next day and then not have the money to buy the things they really needed. They get instructions on how to prioritize their spending when they’re taking tamer classes and that gets completely forgotten when a pretty piece of ass they’ve had for two days begs for just one more bit of fluff.”
Iain shook his head. “Like I said, you can spend it on whatever you want. It’s a lot easier to do if that you don’t have me vetting all of your purchases. I’ll be working on our list of supplies.”
Eve smiled. “And I’ll be helping him.” She took her place by his side as the others scattered. “I have the list, but I also have some suggestions for other things.”
Iain read the sign asking customers to check their packages and handed the clerk his pokepack. “Lead on.”
Eve grinned. “You just want to look at my ass.”
“Right in one.” She blinked and suddenly looked pleased before heading down the aisle.
The first stop for any hunter was the pokeball section. There were actually two areas for pokeballs, the first being the normal and well organized sales racks for the new balls. The other was the bargain bin where recharged pokeballs were sold. While they worked perfectly well, there was a stigma of bad luck associated with pokeballs that had failed to capture their target. It was rumored that a pokeball that had failed once was less likely to capture a pokegirl ever again. Because of this rumor many new tamers as well as a surprising number of veteran tamers avoided them. Having his own oddball group of superstitions Iain didn’t openly mock them, but he did prefer to get the twenty percent discount by rummaging through the bin for his pokeballs. More than one of his friends had noted his Scottish ancestry manifested best in his ability to stretch pennies until they screamed. Iain preferred to think of it as a willingness to spend money where he had to, but to avoid wasting it on useless bells and whistles where he didn’t.
He was busy scanning the pokeballs he’d selected to make sure they were actually fully charged when Eve bustled up with a shopping basket. She held up a small vial. “Why aren’t these on the shopping list? We talked about getting some honey.”
Iain looked at it and suppressed a surge of distaste. “You talked about needing it. I didn’t put it on the list, which suggests I don’t agree with your assessment. We have enough healing magic available in the harem.”
“What if you get injured and we’re all in our pokeballs?”
Iain sighed. “Eve, when I write, I have my characters use honey and so far I’ve managed to avoid mocking it in my stories, but the truth is it’s kind of gross.”
“Why?”
“It’s pussy juice. You’re holding a bottle of old pussy juice from some pokegirl I have never met and you want me to drink that? Do you really want me imbibing the juices of some pokegirl, whose breed we don’t know, sanitary habits we have no clue about and whose condition is entirely unknown? What if she’s the pokegirl equivalent of slave labor and all she does every day is manufacture honey in some pokegirl sweatshop instead of bathing? It’s like asking me to eat already chewed gum you found on the floor.” Eve looked at the bottle she still held and her face paled. “Look, if you really think that I’d be too busy or too stupid to let one of you out so I could be healed if I got injured, you can express some of that wonderful fresh milk you let me drink every day into some bottles and we’ll put them into the pokepack to keep them until I need them.” He smiled lasciviously. “I know exactly where that comes from and it’s very tasty.”
Eve’s cheeks turned pink and she gave him a proud smile. “I’ll get rid of this.”
A short time later Iain was looking into a display case with a thoughtful expression when Eve joined him. She bumped her shoulder against his. `“I’ve put the extra rations on the counter with the other stuff. The clerk is looking happier and happier as the pile gets larger.”
“He’s probably on partial commission.”
“What are you doing?”
“I’m trying to decide if this is a need or a want.”
“What, the knives?”
“No, the pistol. My permit covers everything except military exclusive firearms and I’m thinking about getting a pistol that I can keep for when the shotgun isn’t practical.”
Eve looked around and dropped her voice. “Speaking as your maharani, I think you should have one. Speaking as your woman, I don’t think you should have one that the league knows about. Let me get you one and some ammunition.”
He dropped his voice to match hers. “And speaking as someone who can sometimes see hints about the future?”
Her eyes glowed slightly and returned to normal. “I’ll get it tonight.”
“Will you get in trouble from the authorities?”
She shook her head. “I’ll get it from Lucy. It’ll be sanitized and if there’s a problem we can claim we found it.”
“That sounds good. What else is on the list?”
“That’s about it. Dominique is almost done with her shopping and will come keep you company while I take my turn.” She gave him a curious glance. “Have you considered buying some trinkets for yourself?”
Iain shrugged. “I’ve always had problems buying stuff for me. If I need something I’ll get it as soon as I realize it’s a need, but I’m not much of a browser. And since you are not going to let me be alone for any amount of time here, I can’t buy gifts for my ladies.”
Eve smiled apologetically. “Sorry, but you’re too important to leave unattended. I know you disagree, but it’s true. Besides, there’s that rule about humans being squishy.” Iain made a grumbling sound and she laughed softly. “I know it’s annoying and someday I hope it won’t be necessary.”
“You and me both, Eve.”
***
Iain sat on the back porch of his rented home in Dingle and watched the fog slowly build as he thought about the future. He sighed and looked down at his pokedex, reading the message one last time before pressing the key that sent it.
“What are you doing?” Eirian loomed out of the darkness.
Iain managed not to lurch to his feet in surprise. He took a deep breath and put the pokedex away. “I’m making plans for what happens if we fail.”
“What kind of plans?”
“I just finished up and attached the manumission papers for everyone in my harem to my will. They’ll be free. If they want it.”
“If you die, they will die. If they do not die, they will want to die and will make themselves die.” Eirian’s eyes glowed softly. “I am unsure as to what will happen after that. There is a chance that the delta bond will keep them with us.”
“Us?”
“We are bound with bonds that surpass death, or they would not bind us to you. When you die, you will join us in undeath. Did you not already know this?”
Iain’s mouth dropped. “I’ll do what?”
“Your mastery of us will not end at your death. You will become undead and remain our master.”
“Then why didn’t Eoghan stay your master when Ygerna killed him?”
“He was returned to life. The oathbond did not survive the transition from death to life which, being unnatural, is far more turbulent than the transition from life to death.”
“I hope you won’t find this insulting, but if that’s what happens after my death I’m going to shoot for immortality.”
“If attainable, it would be a worthy goal. Alive, you bring more life to us and we find it pleasing. It is the first emotion I have felt in a century and I am loath to give it up.” She reached towards him, stopping before her hand touched him. “In a way we do not yet understand somehow you bring us warmth.”
She trembled when Iain reached out and took her hand. “If it’s something you like, then I’m glad I can warm you.”
She carefully pulled her hand away. “Warmth is for the living, not the dead, and we thank you for your gift. However, that is not why I am here.”
Iain leaned back and folded his arms. “What is it?”
“We have found a way to deepen the oath bond between us and you into something like a delta bond. It will allow us to respond faster to your desires and for you to aid us in our work.”
“How will it affect my bonds with my living harem?”
“It will not. We are dead and our oath bond with you will not carry to them through the delta bonds you have with them.” She cocked her head. “In fact, this would not work at all except for the fact that you have a strong affinity towards the dead. You would make a passable necromancer. It is why we work with you instead of merely serving you as we did Eoghan.”
“A passable necromancer? You know, I’m not sure I want to explore that potential facet of my growing powers. I’m more comfortable with the living.”
“The more time you spend with the dead, the more you will accept them. Will you work with us to make this deeper bonding take place or will you refuse us this?”
He blinked. “Are you trying to manipulate me into feeling guilty if I say no?”
“I am.”
“That was a pretty straight answer.”
“I cannot lie to a direct question from you. You are my master. Will you allow this or will we live alone in sorrow?”
He chuckled. “That’s pretty good, but you’ll need to learn inflection in your voice before that’ll work.”
“We hope that more of a semblance of life will come to us after we make the bonds stronger.”
“You really want this.”
She nodded. “We do. I do.”
“Crap. Ok, what do I need to do?”
“Come with me. I will provide your security so your Eve will not be upset with you.” The Dragoness strode into the fog.
Eve, I am going with Eirian. We’ll be back in a little while.
Her response sounded sleepy, but then she was sleeping with April, who was making up for years of intermittent tamings with a vengeance. Be careful, my love.
I will. He tried to follow Eirian and stopped when he realized she was gone. I guess I finally have to bite the bullet. He focused his will and suddenly knew where the undead Dragoness was. Then he changed his focus and blinked. His eyes prickled and suddenly the night wasn’t so dark that he couldn’t see the dark form moving away from him at a steady pace. He hurried after her.
Eirian led him into the woods, finally stopping at a rocky outcrop that turned out to be the ruins of some building. “You can see in the dark now. Good.” The other Dragonesses appeared from the darkness, moving to stand around him. “We must consume some of your blood and then we will cast the spell that bonds us more deeply. Fear not, we are not trying to usurp your mastery over us. We have found that your mastery is much lighter and yet much more powerful than Eoghan’s ever was and we know that if we were free of your control, we would make war on each other and the humans in our struggle for supreme mastery. It is how we were when alive and that has only been magnified in death.”
Iain swallowed heavily. “I hadn’t considered that you’d try. If you want free, we’ll work to find a way to make that possible.”
Emerald looked black in the starlight, but he knew who she was just as if he could see her in full daylight. “We know that if we truly lusted for freedom, you would find a way to make it happen, in spite of our knowledge that such a thing is impossible. And that is why we are content being yours.”
Aurum stepped forward and reached out like Eirian had earlier, stopping with her fingers just above his skin. “May I touch you?”
“You need my permission?”
“We do.”
He thought quickly. “Do you also need permission for the ladies?”
“No.”
“Then you have permanent permission to touch me when needed, such as if saving my life. If I change my mind, I will at that point revoke my permission.”
All of the Dragonesses hissed. “You give a great honor,” Sable said/whispered.
“You are my guardians. You are my dead harem. You deserve that much.”
“We are your dead harem? Then you have two harems, the living and the dead. We accept your wondrous gift.”
Aurum took his arm gently and lifted it. “We need your blood, and the easiest place for that is your wrist.”
She drove a talon into the vein that ran right behind his hand and he hissed in pain. “That fucking hurts.”
“Pain is something to be conquered,” the Dragonesses whispered as they crowded around in turn to lap up his blood as it ran down his arm to spill into the soil. Then they stepped away and began casting a spell.
Iain busied himself pulling his shirt off so he could fold it up and use it as a pressure bandage on his wrist to slow the bleeding to something manageable. Scheherazade, come to me.
She appeared next to him, her ears back as she went into a crouch, ready for attack from any direction. “What is it?”
Spots swam in front if Iain’s eyes and he swayed slightly. “Heal my wrist before I pass out.”
The Dread Wolf pulled the shirt away and healed his arm. “What happened?”
“The Dragonesses needed blood. I think they forgot that I could die.”
Scheherazade shook her head and began licking his arm clean. “It is very good and I guess I can understand how they might get excited over your blood.” She finished and wrapped her arms around him, snuggling his head against her breasts. “I think you’ve lost more blood than is good for you. You need fluid and food, in that order.”
“Wait. I want to see what happens.”
Skye turned and headed in their direction. “We are finished. The effects of the spell will take a few days to appear, so we will return to our demesne unless you need us before then.”
Iain nodded. “I understand. Be well.”
She suddenly grinned. “It’s already working. I can feel your concern for us. You should study necromancy. The dead have many things to offer that the living cannot.” She flashed Scheherazade a look that wasn’t entirely friendly before vanishing.
“Cranky bitch, isn’t she?” Scheherazade lifted him in her arms and flew for the house. “Dominique will detect a teleport and come see what’s going on. I want you fed before Eve can start asking questions.”
“Thanks, I appreciate that.”
Scheherazade leaned down and licked his face once. “Remember, the living have many things to offer that the dead will never understand.”
He chuckled and snuggled against her. “Oh, I won’t ever forget that.”
***
“That’s the last of the gear and everyone else is in their pokeballs.” Eve put her pokepack on and adjusted the straps. “Scheherazade, you take good care of him.”
The Dread Wolf’s ears canted sideways as she grinned at her maharani. “I will. He has your pokeball and has already promised to release you just as soon as we exit and determine that he can safely do so. I’ll do the same for Dominique and then we’ll see about April and Irena.”
The Megami-sama scowled. “I don’t care if you come out in the middle of a raging fire. I want released immediately or I’ll do it myself. Do you hear me, Iain?”
“Loud and getting louder by the second.”
She blinked and her face relaxed into an affectionate smile. “Good. Keep in mind just how loud I can get.”
Scheherazade gave her an innocent look. “Oh, we all know about that. We hear you a lot at night.”
Eve’s eyes narrowed and she and started to say something when she dissolved into her capture beam. Iain shook his head. “Do you have to tease her?”
The Dread Wolf nodded solemnly. “I do. It’s harem law.”
“I hadn’t heard that one.”
“I just made it up.”
“Ah.” He put Eve’s ball on his belt and settled his pack. “Are you ready for this?”
Her ears flicked. “Of course not. Neither are you.”
“You’re right, but it’s time.” Iain nodded and stepped into Scheherazade’s arms. He turned to face away from her. “In the East there is a belief that life is a great circle and that eventually you return to where you began. It’s time for that. Next stop is the pirate vessel that welcomed me to here.” His voice dropped to an angry hiss. “Fucking bitches, now I get some payback.”
They vanished.
Iain Grey - Tradesman
Eve - Megami-sama (alpha)
Dominique - Blessed Archmage
Scheherazade - Dread Wolf
Irena- Chibi Sanctuary Goth
April - Duelist
Dragonesses
Eirian - Silver
Skye - Blue
Emerald - Green
Sable - Black
Aurum - Gold
Beryl - Red