Into the Fire
Sixteen
Eve blinked when she stepped into the kitchen. “What happened here?”
Iain smiled from where he sat at the table. “Hurricane Barbie blew through.”
“Do mean that the light fixture wasn’t supposed to be yellow? Who knew it was actually clear?” The kitchen was spotless. The walls had been scrubbed until they gleamed, but that only matched the windows, appliances and even the table, which looked like it had a fresh layer of polish on it.
“I thought she spent the night with you.” Eve poured herself some tea and settled down. She sniffed the unusually dark liquid and frowned at the bitter smell. “What is this?”
“Coffee. Apparently Barbie thinks that coffee is more traditional for breakfast than tea. I understand it’s a French thing.” He shrugged. “I didn’t even know we had some in the house.”
“I doubt she decided that for herself, considering that Damsels are submissive by their very nature. Did you want coffee?”
Iain grimaced at her “I’m not sure you understand what being submissive really means. A submissive is perfectly capable of making decisions on their own if they want to. It just means she’d rather I made the decisions and that my decisions will always override hers. My wants will supplant hers if I choose to tell her what they are. It does not mean she’s an automaton standing around waiting for a command from me.”
“She did spend the night with you, right?” Eve reached for the sugar and cream.
“You already asked that.”
“You didn’t answer.”
“True.” He sipped at his coffee. “She did spend the night with me, but when the nightmares woke me up early, she got up with me and started cleaning.”
“Where is she now, washing the roof?”
“No, she’s putting up the cleaning supplies so she can make breakfast.”
“Did you help her clean?”
Iain shook his head. “I thought the kitchen was fine before. If she wants to improve it she’s free to, but that doesn’t mean I have to pitch in.”
Barbie walked through the back door of the kitchen. “I’m back, master. Good morning, Mistress Eve.”
The Megami-sama cocked her head slightly. “Good morning. Barbie, just call me Eve in private.”
Barbie nodded slowly. “Yes, Eve.”
Iain’s eyes lit up. “And you can call me Iain, Barbie.”
The Damsel smiled. “Master, you are being silly again.” She pulled a knife out of a drawer and retrieved a loaf of bread. “Why does the master keep trying to get me to not call him master, Eve?”
Eve frowned. “He wants you to use his name.”
“I am. He is the master.” Barbie turned to the counter and began cutting thick slices from the loaf.
Eve’s eyebrows shot up. “What will you tell someone who asks you who your master is?”
Barbie didn’t hesitate. “My master is Master Iain Grey and he’s the best master in the whole wide world.”
“You don’t know that.”
“With all due respect, Eve, I do so know that.”
Eve’s eyebrows crawled higher and she gave the back of the Damsel a look of disbelief. “And how can you know that?”
“I learned a lot about the master while I was inside him, although I must admit I like it much more when he’s inside me.” She giggled softly. “He likes the dead and he likes me. He thinks I’m special. Even now I can feel his presence and some of his thoughts. It’s like a piece of the master is always with me.” She looked over her shoulder and beamed at Eve. “It’s the most wonderful thing in the world and it’s just for me. That makes him the best master in the whole wide world.”
The cup of coffee shattered in Eve’s grip, spilling hot coffee all over her lap. The Megami-sama cursed and jumped to her feet, stripping the coffee soaked dress off and tossing it in the garbage. She summoned a new dress and gave Iain a hard look as Barbie stared at her worriedly. “I think you and I need to take a quick walk before breakfast.”
He looked into her eyes for a handful of seconds before draining his cup and putting it down as he got to his feet. “Barbie, go ahead with breakfast. We shouldn’t be long.”
The Damsel visibly relaxed. “Yes, master.” She looked at the shards of ceramic on the floor in the middle of a slowly spreading pool of coffee. “I’ll get right on it after I clean up, if that’s ok.”
“That’s fine, Barbie.”
Eve followed him out the back door and wrapped her arm around his, leading him away from the house. “What is she talking about when she says she knows you? Did you delta bond her too?”
Iain looked thoughtful for a moment before shaking his head. “No, it’s more like the bond I have with the Dragonesses, which isn’t what you’d recognize as a delta bond.”
“Can you explain it to me?”
He pursed his lips. “I’m not completely sure I really understand it, but you and I have a delta bond. With it we can share thoughts and emotions. With Barbie and the Dragonesses, what I have is more like they each have a small piece of my life force inside them. It’s like I provide a spark that they need to be more, for want of a better word, alive. We can communicate like it’s a delta bond, but interestingly enough you can’t detect their links with me and they can’t detect the delta bond I have with you and my other ladies.”
“Can you share emotions with them?” Eve leaned against him, letting his warmth protect her from the early morning chill.
“As far as my experience goes with them, the dead don’t really feel emotions like we do, although Barbie is different from the Dragonesses in that regard. She seems to use some of my emotions for herself.”
“Do you have any idea why she’s different?”
He nodded. “I do have some ideas about that. You need to understand what Eoghan was in order to understand what the Dragonesses might be and how they’re possibly different from Barbie.” When she just breathed into his hair, he chuckled. “Stop that. You know how distracting you can be to me.”
She laughed softly. “It’s still nice to know you react to me after being with someone else. Please continue.”
“I’ll start with our newest addition. Barbie is an astral pokegirl. Astrals are pokegirls who died under enough emotional distress to stick around or died so quickly that they didn’t realize they were dead. I’m not sure which situation resulted in Barbie becoming undead, and for our purposes it doesn’t really matter. She didn’t seek out what she is and she probably doesn’t understand a whole lot about what she’s become, but essentially she is still a Damsel with a couple of extra powers. When she attacked me, she merged her body with mine. When I cast her out, she took part of me with her. I’m not sure exactly what that means for the future, but it seems to act like a delta bond with her. She can feel some of my thoughts and emotions, although I suspect that she feeds on those emotions like she does my life energy. We should also be able to use it to communicate after we both get more used to the situation.”
Eve sighed. “And if that weren’t creepy enough, then there are the Dragonesses.”
“Eoghan was a half Sidhe half human who never managed to access his magic enough to become truly Sidhe and immortal. He was also a fairly talented mage, and since he couldn’t become Sidhe, he instead undertook a very hazardous process to become a lich. Liches are an extremely powerful form of free-willed undead.”
“How powerful are they?”
“By their very definition of being undead magic users, liches are powerful mages with an understanding of the necromantic arts that few living beings have ever had or want. Like many undead, they are immortal. However, unlike many other undead such as undead vampires, they have very few weaknesses and have no need for mortals in order to continue existing. Compared to undead vampires, liches don’t give a shit about sunlight and don’t need blood to continue existing. Unlike mummies, they’re not preserved dead and are not necessarily obsessed with the things they had in life, and unlike most ghosts, they’re not tied to an event or object associated with their death, although many liches deposit their soul inside a phylactery to safeguard their unliving existence and can get very protective of that item. Liches stand at the apex of the undead power structure and have even been known to command other free willed undead, usually through coercion or brute force. Every lich is different, but they’re all powerful and deadly to the living. One thing that almost all liches share is a complete disregard for things that are not important to them, and woes betide anyone who gets between a lich and its current goal.” Iain rubbed Eve’s arms and wrapped them around his body. “Eoghan became a lich in order to punish the Sidhe and also to plan for his eventual resurrection and ascension as a Sidhe lord. He destroyed all of the Sidhe on this world except for Ygerna and planned to make her the mother of a new race of Sidhe, sired by him.” He smiled. “Contrary to what a lot of people think, there have been Adam and Eve stories long before Christianity decided to include one in their bible.”
“One thing Ygerna can never be accused of is being stupid, so after the Revenge War she was quick to add magical pokegirls to the Order of Pendragon as soon as she recognized their potential. Eoghan watched this and became intrigued with them too. He stole some of them and experimented on them until they died. What he found convinced him that they could be useful to him, what with their incredible powers combined with their slavish loyalty to their master no matter how poorly they might be treated. So he acquired specific Dragonesses from knights that he killed and turned them into subordinate liches under his complete control. These Dragonesses were the parthenogenic children of members of Ygerna’s guard and were being trained to take the places of their dams, so they were exceptionally skilled magic users in and of themselves. He removed their capability for free will and made them into automatons. It severely limited them, but he was more comfortable with that than with the idea that they could be free willed and had the potential strength to be even more powerful than he was.” He flashed a quick smiled. “Apparently the paradigm carries over and pokegirl liches are less squishy than human liches. Considering that trying to chop up a lich is like trying to cut modern battle steel with an axe, that’s quite a statement.”
“But they have free will. They don’t act like robots.”
“I gave free will back to them when I restored their minds. They’re still mine, but with their minds back they’re much more useful as well as more lethal. Among other things, I freed their full use of the magic that they know. That’s how they came up with their innovative delta bond mimicking spell.” He grimaced. “And that’s probably how they may be looking for a way to have me fuck them.”
“Are they likely to be dangerous to us?”
Iain considered the question for several seconds. “Anything involving pokegirls can be dangerous to squishy folks like me, so I cannot give you an unequivocal ‘no’ in response to that question. However, they are bound to me and must be loyal due to the binding spells involved in their creation. In addition, they claim to like me, which possibly will cause them to show more initiative in keeping us safe. Or at least that’s what I hope. They were needed in the assault on the pirate ship and I think they did a good job there.”
Eve chuckled. “That they did. It scared me when Emerald exploded and she’s on my side. I’ve never seen that outside a Bombshell and with them they can’t get up and keep fighting. Still, their presence worries me.”
“Why?”
“They don’t scan as either good or evil and that keeps me on edge around them.”
“Do you scan everyone around you?”
“I do.” Eve tightened her arms around him for a second. “It’s become automatic over the years. I know that good people can do horrible things in the name of good and that evil people can perform charitable acts, but still,” her voice trailed off.
“You like putting people into pigeonholes.”
“What’s that?”
“Long before the war and pokegirls, before telephone and telegraph, the only way to communicate with people was via the post. People had large writing desks and each desk had a bunch of little compartments where they kept things like letters that needed replies, ink, spare quills, sheets of paper, envelopes and whatnot. These little compartments were called pigeonholes because they resembled the little nesting areas that domestic pigeons used. Eventually the phone replaced writing and the desks fell into disuse. But the word stayed in the vernacular and it has come to be used for things that are put into discrete categories or compartmentalized. You like to put people into categories by defining them as good or not good.”
“You know the strangest things. Is everyone from your world so full of trivia?”
Iain shook his head. “A lot of people there are just as ignorant of history as people here can be. I’m just a font of odd tidbits.”
Eve let him go. “So the Dragonesses are on our side.”
“Technically, they’re on my side. I’ve already been told that they won’t obey anyone but me because you and the others aren’t important to them except through me.”
“Good.”
Iain blinked. “It is?”
“Yes. I don’t want anyone to be able to get you to let them take control of the Dragonesses or have them hesitate between saving you and one of us. It’s nice to know that there’s a group that will always have your best interests at heart besides me and the rest of your harem.”
“And if they want me to have sex with them?”
“I won’t deny that the idea is repugnant to me, but that’s mostly due to the fact that I want more time with you than I get now. I remember you’ve already said that you’ll do what is necessary to keep your women happy and you’ve also admitted that they are some of your women, even if they’re dead. I just hope that if they do want you to tame them that they’ll lose interest fairly quickly.”
“That’s easy for you to say. They don’t want to have sex with you.”
Eve gave him a bright smile. “It is, isn’t it?” Her smile faded as her face turned serious. “However, I did notice that not all of them seemed inclined to have you tame them and hope that lack of interest in sex will be more universal than a desire to experiment with you.”
“Me too.”
***
The clouds were high and thin, and the stars gleamed dully through them. Dominique appeared and let Iain go. “Welcome to Shrewsbury,” she said quietly. She pointed to the northwest. “On the other side of those trees is the Shrewsbury Gymnasium and Training Facility. However, your destination, the Shrewsbury Pokegirl Center, is in the other direction.”
He reached for his belt. “I’m glad you thought about using Shrewsbury and that you’d been here before.” He released April. “We’re here.”
The Duelist nodded as she looked around them. “Remember, if there’s anyone up at the center, you just let me do the talking.”
Iain dropped to one knee and bent his head. “Yes, mistress. I will do as you command.”
Dominique burst out laughing as April looked shocked. To her credit, the Duelist recovered quickly. “You do that. Where is the center?”
“This way.” The Archmage led them down the street towards the pokegirl center.
Shrewsbury had a population of just over eight thousand and the single pokegirl center easily handled tamer needs in the area. It was in a sturdy building that had been deliberately isolated from the rest of the town when constructed. This had been done in order to minimize accidental property damage from skirmishing tamers who tended to congregate around pokegirl centers. Over the years businesses such as stores selling camping supplies and hotels offering comforts far greater than those found in the center had been built in the area of the pokegirl center. Although closed, the lights of their marquees still glowed just brightly enough not to violate the town’s light pollution ordinances in the early morning hours. Lights that were too bright called ferals to investigate and the town controlled the lighting through draconian fines for violators.
April stepped through the automatic door and smiled in satisfaction at the empty space behind the counter. “Good, the duty attendant is asleep. Tamers coming by are supposed to press the buzzer to wake her up.” She slipped behind the counter and looked the computer over. “Let’s see if the standard approach will work.”
Iain blinked. “The Blue League has standard codes for their computer security? That kind of defeats the concept of security.”
“No, they don’t.” April pulled a sheet of paper from under the keyboard and put it back before opening a couple of drawers. She pulled out a small piece of paper out and gave her man a triumphant grin. “But sometimes they need an emergency replacement because someone got bonded or pokegirl employees who are cogitationally challenged have to operate the computers, so the default access codes are usually kept handy someplace.”
“And so, once again, human behavior undermines operational security.” Iain looked vaguely disgusted.
April carefully typed while reading the paper. “And we’re in.” She paused and deliberately put the paper back where she’d found it before going back to typing. “Let me pull up a tamer record that was accessed today and we’ll use that one for cover if someone comes in. Dee, I want you to watch the counter. If a tamer comes in, just let Iain and me know through the link and I’ll show up to take care of whatever problem there is. Above all, we don’t want anyone pushing that buzzer and waking the duty attendant since she’ll know we’re not supposed to be here.”
“Recordings.”
April blanched at Iain’s single word and typed quickly. “Shit. Ok, I’ve got the recording system and I’m stopping the recording program while we’re here. The cameras and microphones are only in the inner and taming rooms, so we haven’t been recorded yet.” She looked up. “That’ll flag the fact that something was going on, but since there won’t be any recordings of it, nobody will know what it is.”
Dominique shrugged. “Don’t sweat it, but don’t turn the system back on when we leave. They’ll probably figure a Bunnygirl entered the wrong command and shut the system down. At that point they’ll just be happy that she didn’t pee on the computer and short it out.”
Iain looked from one pokegirl to the other. “And I thought I had a low opinion of government flunkies.”
April grimaced. “Iain, you imagined what a Bunnygirl or Bimbo could be like for a story and you could dismiss that image whenever you wanted. Dominique and I’ve had to put up with the reality for most of our adult lives and we’re a bit bitter about having to fix the problems they cause.”
“Really? I hadn’t noticed.”
April started to glare but relaxed when he came around the counter and hugged her hard. She snuggled against him for an instant before pulling away. “You’re a prick sometimes, but at least you’re my prick. Let’s get started.”
He grinned. “What is it we’re doing now, pretty girl?”
Dominique shoved him hard enough to make him stumble into April. “Stop playing and get this done before we’re discovered.”
April laughed and pushed him upright before leading him through a door. Her voice dropped to a whisper. “Fortunately, most pokegirl centers are laid out pretty much the same. It makes moving from one to another easier.” They were in a hallway that passed two doors before ending in a third one. “The last door is where the attendant is sleeping right now, unless she found a tamer to take her to his room. The first door has the healing and storage equipment in it while the second door has the conditioner.” She gave him a sad look. “It was decided to separate the two when some pokegirls were accidentally conditioned when they were supposed to have been healed instead.”
“Fuck. That would have sucked rocks. If I’d ever heard about that happening, I’d never go near a pokegirl center.”
April opened the second door and flipped on the light. “They didn’t have much choice, Iain. The PPHU is a pretty recent invention. It was either have your pokegirls healed at the centers or put up with your pokegirls staying out of commission while they healed, and that only if the injury was something that they could survive for long enough to heal on their own. Before pokegirl centers, pokegirl mortality was very high and tamers could expect to seven or eight members of their harem die before they got powerful enough to survive most feral pokegirls.”
The room was small and covering the back wall was a large piece of equipment roughly two meters wide and tall. It was half a meter thick. On the left side was a control panel with a small computer display while on the right was a square door fifteen centimeters high and thirty centimeters wide. A single red light glowed on the control panel.
On one wall was a poster that reminded the operator that this was the conditioning room and to double check that any subjects were scheduled for a conditioning cycle. It warned against accidentally conditioning pokegirls at a higher level than requested. A printed sheet of paper had been tacked underneath it. It read:
Conditioning Levels
Level 1: Normal
Level 2: Shaken
Level 3: Stirred
Level 4: Blended
Level 5: Liquefied
ALWAYS REMEMBER TO SERVE THE POKEGIRL PROMPTLY AFTER CONDITIONING.
“Humans must work in this center on a regular basis. That’s someone’s idea of a joke and no pokegirl operator would think it anything more than disgusting or let it stay up for long if there were no humans around.” April pressed the light and it turned green. The display lit up and quickly filled with data that scrolled down before blanking and beginning the boot process. “It’ll take a minute to warm up.” She sighed and gave him a look over her shoulder. “I hate this room. Most of us do.”
“Can you do this? If you can’t, show me how to operate the conditioner and I’ll handle the job.”
She stepped into his arms and snuggled close. “I hate this room because too many pokegirls have had their minds blasted in equipment just like this for nothing more than being with a tamer who didn’t like the way she behaved. That’s what this is; it’s an execution chamber for pokegirls. All it does is leave the body alive so it doesn’t have to be buried.” Her eyes hardened. “But some pokegirls deserve to have their minds wiped for reasons that I agree with. I think the pirates we captured definitely deserve that. I’d be happy to cycle them all and not just the ones you and Eve say are the worst of the bunch.”
“That’s why we sorted them, you know. I don’t want to destroy the minds of anyone that really doesn’t deserve it. I also didn’t want to have you or me be the executioner for a single pokegirl more than necessary. Right or wrong, what we do tonight goes on my karma.” He smiled when she looked startled. “Hopefully, the sorting means that I’ll get positive karma for keeping more people from dying at the hands of the real pirates as well as for not conditioning anyone I didn’t really need to.”
The Duelist suddenly looked worried. “Do you think pokegirls have karma?”
“April, you are a person with a soul; so, yes, you do. And from what I’ve seen you’re a good woman and should have lots of positive karma banked up for the next life.”
“You’ve never struck me as a religious person, Iain.” April pushed away from him and busied herself at the control panel.
“I’m not, not really, but my politics and my personal beliefs are very similar to some religions. I won’t strike the first blow, but I will defend myself if threatened. I also think that by doing good people get good back. It’s very similar to the threefold rule in Wicca and other religions in that the things you do will be returned to you threefold, so it behooves you to do more good than harm. I’m stopping evil when I condition these pokegirls and then I’m giving them another opportunity at a better life when I sell them off. Not all of them will get that, but I don’t have time to vet the people who will purchase them; and since they’re outside my bubble I’m not going to try to make that time. In any case, I’m stopping two ships full of pirates from looting and murdering. The fact that I had a personal vendetta against the crew of the Free Bitch was just the incentive.”
April nodded. “The system is ready to go.” She pressed a button and the hatch swung open on its bottom hinges as a tray slid out. The tray had holding compartments for six pokeballs. Iain pulled both of the bags of pokeballs from his pack and double checked the tags before handing the bag containing pokeballs to be conditioned to her. She filled the tray from it and pushed another control. The tray slid into the machine and the hatch closed. “A level five conditioning cycle takes ten minutes to run, so I can cycle thirty six pokeballs an hour through the conditioner.”
“We’ve got forty two pokeballs that need run. So we’ll need an hour and ten minutes to process them all.” Iain folded his arms and leaned against the wall. “We’ll do as many as we can, but be ready to leave if we’re discovered.”
“A healing cycle only takes fifty seconds. I can get started on those while we’re waiting.”
He smiled and handed her the bag he still held. “That’s an excellent reason to get out of here.”
They stepped into the hall just as the last door opened and a yawning Nursejoy appeared in the doorway. She looked just old enough to be a pokegirl and a look of sleepy surprise crossed her face when she saw them. Quickly she tried to straighten her sleep rumpled uniform. “I thought I heard voices. Who are you?” She blinked as she realized Iain was male. “Sir.”
April sent a mental message to Dominique as she smiled reassuringly. “We’re with the government and we’re doing some classified work. I need you to go back to your room and go to sleep after you forget all about seeing us.”
The Nursejoy’s mouth dropped for a second. “I’ll need to see some ID.”
Dominique stepped into the hall and flashed her league badge, carefully keeping the ID card above it covered with her hand. “Here you go. They’re working for me. Now return to your room and forget you ever saw us or I’ll have to have you conditioned.” The Archmage nodded brusquely as the Nursejoy paled and swallowed loudly. “I don’t want to do that, so please don’t force my hand.”
The Nursejoy straightened her shoulders and faced Dominique squarely. “My name is Leslie. I’m fully trained and qualified for special operations. I’ll do what you request, but first I have to ask if I can assist you in any way.”
Dominique glanced at Iain and relaxed at his almost imperceptible nod. She motioned to April. “Do what she says. Don’t ask for names and don’t question her. If you cannot in good conscience perform the duties she requires of you, you are to return to your room immediately or I will pokeball and level five condition you. Do you understand?”
Leslie snapped to attention. “I do, mistress.”
April nodded to the first door and held up the bag of pokeballs that didn’t need conditioned. “You’re to run all of these through a full healing and cleaning cycle. They’re all freshly caught, so the system will have to establish a baseline for each of them. Use the standard breed baseline for them and allow the healer to fix any deviations from it. As I get done conditioning the ones that need it, I’ll bring them to you to add to the healing queue. Also, if required, you’ll go to the front desk to deal with anyone who comes in.”
“Yes, mistress.” Leslie gave Iain a curious look as she took the bag and disappeared into the healing room.
Dominique shook her head. “I really hope she can keep her mouth shut.”
April glanced at Iain. “We could keep her and make her one of us. That would ensure her loyalty.”
Iain thought for a moment. “No. I won’t haul her off on our death run. She has no idea of what we’re doing and I won’t force her into it.”
Dominique’s eyes glinted with approval. “I’m glad you think that way about it.” She looked at April. “You don’t keep suggesting it to him or I’m sure our maharani will want to have a private conversation with you out in the woods where we can’t hear you scream. Then I’ll want to have a similar talk with you.”
April snorted. “Keep your threats to yourself. He made his decision and I agree with his logic. I just had to let him consider the option. Now get back to your desk duty.” Dominique nodded and disappeared back into the lobby. April looked at Iain. “With Leslie’s help this won’t really go faster since the limit is the time for the conditioning cycles, but it means I can monitor the cycles more closely and deal with any discrepancies.”
“Are there usually discrepancies?”
“No, but powerful psychic and magical pokegirls can try to fight the conditioning process. While they’re seldom successful, they can cause more damage to themselves by fighting unless the conditioning cycle is altered slightly to keep their resistance from being effective. A really powerful one is sometimes killed while conditioning.”
“What about the technique our desk sentry told us about?” Iain was trying very hard not to say any names or nicknames, so he was forced to be oblique in his reference to the protective mantra spell that Dominique had used against Irena.
“I haven’t seen it yet, so I couldn’t say.” April opened the door to the conditioning room and gestured him inside. “And testing its ability to work for someone could prove rather problematic if it’s not fully effective on the subject since she’d then be conditioned.”
Iain nodded. “I thought of that too. I think, for the time being, we’ll keep using it for its other purpose and keep it in reserve for an emergency. I don’t want to test it on someone I like and have it fail either.”
“Trust me when I say we’re all happy to hear that.” The conditioner beeped three times and the hatch opened so the tray could slide out. April took the pokeballs off of it and put them in her pocket before reloading the tray from the bag and starting the cycle again. “I’ll be right back.” She left the room and returned a moment later. “Leslie will be finished before I will.”
“That’s fine.”
The Duelist checked the display. “I’ve got a question.”
“Shoot.”
“You’ve got the oddest colloquialisms, you know that? Anyway, it’s about the Dragonesses. I know they’re dead. We’ve discussed what you’ve told each of us so we all know pretty much everything you’ve been saying. There are other dead pokegirls out there and they can be put into pokeballs for healing and such. Can ours?”
“I have no idea. Can astral pokegirls be pokeballed?”
April nodded. “They have to allow it, but yes, they can.”
Iain frowned. “Then I’ll have to talk to the Dragonesses and see if they’re interested in experimenting. Even if they can be housed that way, the question then becomes what advantage does being put into a pokeball bring to them? I can think of a whole host of disadvantages, but no real concrete plusses.”
“Can they be healed? If they can, pokeballs could be useful to them.”
“That’s a good question that I don’t have a definitive answer for. Considering the Zombabe as a case in point, undead creatures sometimes have problems with healing magic. Some experimentation may be in order when we return to our base camp.”
The conditioner beeped again and again April swapped out pokeballs and restarted it before leaving to give the finished girls to Leslie. When she returned, she leaned against the wall next to Iain. “Speaking of pokeballs, I wanted to talk to you about whether or not you’d let me move into a maternity ball sometime soon. I know I can’t do it tonight since that would flag my presence here, but soon.”
Iain blinked and then looked thoughtful. When he spoke, it was obvious he was trying to carefully pick his words. “Do you think this is a good time for children?”
“I’m not pregnant right now, but I think I’d like to have a litter of little Duelists before I become a pokewoman.”
“What about our fight with the Goths?”
“What about it? I am not a melee specialist and I can still fight while pregnant.” She waved an arm. “Yes, I could be injured to the point that I could lose the babies, but with pokeballs that is a very distant threat unless we’re all dead. The fact is that there will always be reasons against me getting pregnant, and I don’t have that long before I change into a pokewoman.” She watched him with neutral eyes. “Now you just have to decide if you’ll let me do it.”
“Can I ask what brought this on?”
“I have a good man in my life and an opportunity to have children with him. I thought about having children while I was free, but the truth is that free pokegirls are strongly encouraged not to reproduce. The ones that do choose to have kits often find that the league will trump up a reason to confiscate their children.” She rubbed her arms as if she was cold. “I don’t want my kids becoming part of the ranch system and I know that when they come of age you’ll help me find them good tamers.”
Iain rubbed his eyes tiredly. “In my home, I realized a while ago that I’d never be a father. While Eve has talked about kids when she becomes a pokewoman, it was in the nebulous future that I don’t have to concern myself about. Facing the fact that you want kids right now is very immediate and kind of scary.” He smiled slightly when April’s eyes filled with pain before she looked away from him. “But the truth is that it’s also kind of exciting.”
April’s head whipped around to stare at him. “Really?”
“I don’t lie to the ladies in my life.” Iain reached for the door. “I’ll be right back.”
Once in the hall, he headed into the healing room. The room was laid out similarly to the conditioning room, but the equipment here had four hatches on it due to the expected higher demand for its services. Leslie was sitting in a chair and staring at an electronic reader. She looked up from a reader and turned bright red as she pressed the reader against her chest. “Sir!”
“I’m sorry for interrupting you, but I was wondering if I could get some maternity balls.”
“Of course, sir!” The Nursejoy put the reader face down on a small table and shot to her feet. “I’ll be right back.” She hurried from the room.
Curious as to her behavior, Iain turned the reader over to see what was being displayed. The header let him know it was an electronic magazine called Super Tamer. The image on the display was of a nude, muscular man proudly sporting an erection pointed at the reader. “I’ll bet porn for pokegirls sells very well.” Iain chuckled softly and carefully returned the reader to its original position.
Leslie was back in a few minutes with a cardboard box. Her eyes flicked towards the reader and then she deliberately tried to ignore its existence. “Here are the maternity balls, sir. I didn’t know how many you needed so I brought the whole box.”
Iain took the box from her. “Can I have a dozen of them without a record being made about it?”
“Sir, we don’t track maternity balls except as inventory. We don’t have to. The transfer will register a pokegirl moving from her old pokeball into the maternity ball.” She gave him a smile that lit up her face. “We usually give out seven or eight maternity balls a year, sir. Please take as many as you need.”
“Thank you, Leslie.” Iain fished out a dozen balls and stuffed them into his pockets.
“Sir, may I ask you a question?”
Iain looked up and, from the look on her face, realized immediately what she was going to ask. “I’m sorry, Leslie, but the answer is no. I’m sure you’d be a valuable addition to my harem and that as a civil servant I could easily claim a civil service pokegirl, but I already have a dedicated healer in my harem and you’re needed here. I’m sure you’ll find someone who will give you a place and the attention you deserve and until then you shouldn’t settle for anything less.”
Leslie gave him a wistful look. “You really think that, sir?”
“I do. You volunteered to help us tonight and I am positive that your work ethic and charming personality will win you a place with someone who is perfect for you.” He reached out and touched her cheek with a finger. “And while I am confident that you’d pull your weight, where I am going is no place for a steep learning curve in survival.”
“If it’s that dangerous, I hope your healer is well trained and tough.”
Iain pulled his hand back. “She’s a Night Nurse and I trust her with my life. You know, if you’re interested in a more active career, you could put in for a transfer to the BLSF. They always need combat medics and the soldiers are pretty relaxed with their pokegirls. That and they can’t lose them to salvage.”
Enthusiasm spread across Leslie’s face. “That sounds like a great idea, sir.”
Iain grinned. “Of course it is. I came up with it.” Leslie laughed as he handed her back the box. “Thank you for all of your help, Leslie.”
“Thank you, sir, for letting me.” She reached for the reader again as he left.
April watched him come into the conditioning room. “What did you want with Leslie? I could hear the two of you talking, but I couldn’t make out the words.”
“I asked her for a favor and gave her some career advice in return.”
“Oh.”
Iain pulled the Duelist’s pokeball off of his belt. “Did you know about the smoke in electronics?” Without waiting for an answer, he dug a knife out of his pocket and flipped it open, listening for the click that indicated the blade lock had engaged. He pried at the pokeball’s lid, forcing it open as he kept talking. “Many engineers and technicians say that all electronics really do is store smoke and that the smoke is what actually does the work.” The interior of the pokeball was mirror bright and faceted like a gem. He drove the knife point into the edge of a facet and yelped as there was a bright flash and a crackle as a thread of smoke lifted from the knife point and dissipated. Ozone drifted from the ball and Iain sneezed. “There is some evidence in favor of this theory, for it’s widely known that if you let the smoke out of an electronic item, it stops working.”
“You just broke my pokeball. Why?”
Iain stuffed the ruined pokeball into the standard pocket on his pokepack. “When a pokeball is broken, the pokegirl tuned to it is freed.” He pulled one of the maternity balls from his pocket. The Duelist’s eyes went wide when she recognized what he held. “It means she will need to be recaptured in a new pokeball.” He smiled slightly. “Capturing a girl in a new pokeball leaves no paper trail or transfer records.” The smile turned crooked. “So, are you going to fight being captured?”
April grinned foolishly as she stepped forward. “I will not.” He touched her with the ball and she vanished into the capture beam. The pokeball jumped out of his hand and bounced around for several seconds before the capture chime sounded. Iain scooped it up and hit the release. April appeared and hugged him. “Thank you.” She kissed him soundly. “You caught me. Now you have to tame me.”
He chuckled. “And I will, just not here and now. Let’s finish this up and go.”
***
The door to his office cracked open and Irena stuck her head inside. “Iain, do you have a minute?”
He looked up from the magical tome that Dominique had leant him. “Considering that trying to understand this is like wading through molasses, sure. I don’t have the background for this crap. What is it?”
The Chibi Sanctuary Goth opened the door and tugged on a box. She glared out into the hallway. “April, grab the other end.” The box levitated as the Duelist lifted the other handle and the two of them carried it into his office. “What is this?”
Iain folded the book shut and laid it to the side before steepling his hands on the desk. He’d recognized the wooden box as soon as he’d seen it. “What were you doing in Eve’s pokepack?”
April’s mouth dropped open and she glared at her harem sister. “This was in Eve’s pokepack? Oh, great, now you’ve gotten me in a lot of trouble with her. What, you wanted to have me punished alongside you?”
Irena shrugged, but didn’t look worried. “Eve wanted me to get something out of her pack for her and this came out when I used the search function. I thought the stuff she wanted might be in the box so I opened it.”
Iain cocked his head. “Will Eve accept that explanation when you tell it to her?”
“I was kind of hoping you’d explain it to her until she understands what happened. You’re so much better at that than I am.”
He smiled brightly. “Nope. You got it out and you’ll have to tell your maharani you did. If Eve wanted you to get something from her pack, I’m pretty sure she gave you an index number for retrieval. She’s got them memorized, you know.”
“Iain, it’s full of gold!”
He nodded. “Yes, it has gold in it, but it’s less than half full. Before you joined the harem and before April came to live with us, we discovered some artifacts in Edinburgh. We sold them and got some gold as part of their purchase price. A lot of it got used by Dominique and Eve for magic stuff. That’s what’s left.”
Irena scuffed the box with the toe of her boot. “It must be worth millions.”
“That’s right, it is. It’s our emergency reserve in case the league freezes our assets and we have to establish another identity. Eve asked to keep it because her pack is usually the emptiest and because a Megami-sama is less likely to be searched if she invokes privacy about her private possessions. Me they’ll search in a heartbeat.”
Irena blinked. “I didn’t know.”
“That’s right. What you don’t know you can’t reveal under interrogation. You’d have been told about it after Eve and Dominique tested your mental defenses. That wasn’t scheduled until the day after tomorrow.”
April sighed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know she’d gotten this from Eve, but that’s not an excuse. I won’t protest whatever punishment you and Eve decide.”
Iain smiled again. “I don’t think it’ll be too bad, April. I don’t think it’ll be too bad for you, Irena, but you need to contain this tendency to snoop. We haven’t gone through your stuff and we’d appreciate the same respect from you.” His smile vanished. “We’re all allowed some secrets, Irena.”
The Sanctuary Goth looked into his eyes. “I’m sorry, Iain.”
“Unless you’ve gone through my stuff, too, I’m not the one you need to apologize to. Now put that back where you found it and after that own up for what you did. You’ll also need to explain that April wasn’t aware of the situation when you got her involved.” His eyes shifted to the Duelist’s. “And you still need to be there. Eve may want to take the opportunity to explain some other things to you.”
“I will.” April took one of the handles on the box. “Let’s put this back, Irena.”
After they were gone, Iain leaned back in his chair. Eve? Do you have a minute?
I’ll be right there. A few seconds later she appeared in front of his desk. Her clothing was tattered and bloodstained and she smelled of smoke, forest and things he couldn’t identify. “What is it, Iain?”
“What did you send Irena to get from your pokepack?”
She frowned. “I sent her to get all of the empty p-med dispensers. They need refilled before we start our next phase. Why?”
“She went snooping and found the gold. Then she showed it to April and the two of them came here to ask me about it. Right now they’re returning the gold before they find you and apologize for violating your privacy.”
Eve settled down in a chair. “I still don’t understand why having privacy is so important to you.”
“We live in each others’ pockets as it is, Eve. Everybody needs some privacy, even if it’s to keep issues of Super Tamer they don’t want to share. Without privacy, how could I buy gifts to surprise people with?”
She laughed. “You know about that porn magazine? Fine, I understand that you feel you need privacy. I accept that. You’re the tamer, after all. But the harem? I don’t think that’s really necessary. What if they were hiding something important?”
“You’re a product of your environment, Eve. Our family is not an authoritarian regime and it’s not going to become one. Everyone gets their privacy if they want it.”
“What if we get someone who plots against you? She could use that privacy to plan to hurt you.”
He snorted. “I don’t think you’ll ever allow anyone whose loyalty we suspect anywhere near my bed, will you? Not to speak of you’d never let her get close enough to hurt me outside of the bedroom.”
Eve smiled. “You are starting to know me entirely too well.”
“That’s what happens with people who love each other, Eve. Personally, I don’t want anyone we don’t trust completely near me, either. It just takes a single slash of claws or bite or offensive technique on the part of an assassin and my soul gets recycled. Since my body has do die for that to happen, I’m not in any hurry for such an event. But that does not mean that my ladies and I don’t get some privacy. They get it from me and you and each other, just like you and I do from them.”
Eve sat upright and shrugged. “Fine. What do you think I should do with Irena and April to punish them?”
“You had to ask that, didn’t you?”
She chuckled. “Of course I did. If you want rules about privacy enforced, you get to come up with how. It’s part of the tamer’s job.”
“Shit.” He drummed his fingers on the desk. “Let me think.”
She chuckled again. “Stalling for time? How unlike you, Iain.”
“Hush, you.” She just sat and grinned as he thought. “April wasn’t really involved, so she shouldn’t get much more than a stern talking to. Do you think that would also be sufficient for Irena?”
The Megami-sama shook her head. “I don’t. She’s way too nosy for her own good, and if you want privacy rules in the household, she needs to be made an example of.”
“Then give her to the Dragonesses for testing to destruction. You want to learn her limits, and this is a good reason to push her until she can’t go on anymore and to push her a lot harder than you’d push anyone else. Have them pound on her while she fights back until she has to go into a pokeball. Don’t heal her until that point, although she can use her own healing powers all she wants in order to drag the session out.”
Eve smirked slightly. “Actually, I intend to do just that with everyone, including myself.”
“Don’t tell her that. Let her think this is special punishment for a while. When you do it to everyone else she’ll realize she wasn’t treated that badly and it’ll help to build camaraderie with her and the others. I’ve noticed there is a tendency towards clannishness between the so called old guard and Irena and April. I don’t like it and I want it to stop. Shared misery is a good way to start welding everyone into a single group.”
Eve frowned. “I hadn’t thought about it, but you’re right. What about Barbie? Should she go through the ordeal with us? She is part of the harem.”
“Do you think she will? She’s not a combat type and can go insubstantial to avoid the Dragonesses attacks.”
“Iain, I think she’ll try to do anything her master tells her to do. If you want her to fight, she’ll give it a shot even if she pees herself and runs at the first exchange.”
“Ok, so she will fight if I order her to. But should I?”
“If you want her to be part of your living harem, then yes. Shared misery, as you just pointed out.” Eve got up and ran her fingers through her hair. “I need to get back to training with the others.” She came around the desk and kissed Iain thoroughly. “I hope you don’t mind the way I smell.”
“You smell good to me.”
Eve beamed at him. “You say the nicest things.” She vanished.
***
Iain jerked upright with a gasp as his eyes shot open. Chains rattled and he slammed to a halt when he hit the end of his fetters. He fell back, panting, and moaned softly when the back of his head started pounding. “Oh, shit, not again. I hate it when I wake up from a nightmare only to find that I’m still in the nightmare and think I’m not.”
To keep his throbbing head under control, he slowly looked around the chamber he was in. It was dimly lit except for a bright light that shone down on his bare chest, lighting up his nude body. It smelled musty, with the heavy odor of old grease and rust. “Yeah, I’m still in my nightmare and it’s one of the good ones where all my senses get offended. This is perfect torture scenario. Nothing this cheesy exists in reality.” He grinned. “Time to cue the mysterious figure.”
“You think I am available to call on command?” A shadow moved in the darkness and became visible as it approached the light. “You think this is a dream of some kind? That’s twice you are wrong, Kerrik Wolf.” She was tall, with elegant brunette hair and breasts that seemed to defy gravity.
Iain glanced at the Celtic tattoos that ran down her arms and grinned again in amusement. “Hi, Lola.”
The pokegirl who’d tortured him on the Free Bitch blinked. “Lola? Why do you call me that?”
“You’ve been in my dreams so much I figured you needed a name. It helped to demonsterfy you. Lola was a stupid slut dancing at the Copacabana in a song I hate, so you became Lola.”
The Sanctuary Goth slapped him hard enough to split his lips. “My name is Aglaii and this is no dream, you idiot.” She smiled as he spat blood and stared at her in shock. “Your escape cost me my position as a highly valued agent. Now that I’ve recovered you, I think I’ll just keep that information to myself for a while so we can get reacquainted. If you survive that, I’ll turn what’s left of you over to the High Council.” She pulled a cart up next to her. On it could be seen a vast array of surgical equipment.
Iain blinked when someone from the other side of the table from Aglaii pressed a finger to his lips and they mended. Aglaii’s mouth thinned. “What did you do that for, you stupid idiot?”
Iain’s heart began pounding in his chest when a soft voice that he recognized answered. “Mistress, you ordered me to keep him healed so you could work on him longer.”
Aglaii smiled evilly. “I did, didn’t I? Good job following my orders, Barbie.”
***
“Eirian! I need to talk to you!” Eve waited a moment and tried again. “EIRIAN! SKYE! EMERALD! SABLE! AURUM! BERYL! I summon you in the name of Iain!”
A shadow moved and stepped forward. Aurum stood very still as she looked at Eve, and the Megami-sama gulped at the menace she felt radiating from the undead Dragoness. “You have no power to summon us, troublemaking life. I came only because he would want me to find out what it is you want. What do you want?”
Eve tried not let her worry show and almost snarled when she realized she’d failed. “Iain is missing and our bonds with him are dead. Please tell me he’s with you and the others.”
The gold Dragoness tail flicked sideways. “He is not with us. We know you do not like us and thought you were playing your living games with our connection with him.” She turned slightly. “She does not know where Iain is.”
Eve blinked when the other Dragonesses appeared around her. Eirian stepped forward until her muzzle was almost touching Eve’s nose. “Tell me you do not know where Iain is.” Her breath was cold and reeked of rotting things that made Eve want to pull away in disgust as her stomach roiled.
She fought the urge and won. “I do not know where Iain is. My delta bond with him and the bonds of the rest of his living harem are unresponsive, but not broken. He went shopping for groceries with Barbie this morning and hasn’t returned.”
Eirian didn’t move back. “Tell me you didn’t sabotage our death bonds with him.”
“I didn’t. I can’t feel your bond with him and wouldn’t even know how to go about doing that.”
Sable growled. “She speaks the truth.”
Eirian stepped back two paces and became still. “Our bonds with him are inoperative as well and we do not know where he is. We do know that he is still alive.”
“How?” It slipped out before Eve could stop herself.
Sable laughed grimly.
Eirian didn’t respond overtly. “When he dies, he will join us in undeath. He has not and therefore he is still among the living.” The other Dragonesses vanished. “We are searching for a way to locate him. When we find that way, I will send someone to tell you. If you determine where he is before we do, send someone to this place to call for us. We will be listening for you.” She faded from view.
Eve stared at the spot where the undead Dragoness had stood for nearly a minute. “FUCK!”
***
Iain jerked when icy water jetted over him and lurched upright again, only to crash back onto the table when he hit the end of his chains. He turned his head into the spray, trying to swallow some of the water as it played over him to wash the gore and filth from his body. His voice was almost completely gone from screaming, but he managed to croak out the question that had been eating at him for the past eternity since Aglaii had started cutting on him. “Why, Barbie? Why did you betray me?”
The astral Damsel aimed the water hose at his groin and started work removing the excrement and urine. “I have betrayed no one. My mistress is my true mistress. We were delta bonded in life and are still that way since my death and her commands can override anyone else’s. She commanded me to wait in that cell in case you returned and to use the pirates to keep myself alive. If you did come back I was to attempt to bond myself to you so she could track me to find you. The presence of the Dragonesses seemed to confuse her detection spell and kept her from being able to find me until we went shopping far enough away from them. Then I hit you on the head with a rock and she came and got us.”
He grimaced and spat out a tooth, his eyes following the motion without really comprehending what he was seeing. “I take it she didn’t order you not to tell me this. What are her plans?”
“They are what she told you. She will entertain herself with you for a week or so longer and then let the High Council of Sanctuary know she has you. Then they will take you.”
“How long have I been here so far?”
“A little less than a day. It will be daybreak soon and my mistress will return.”
Iain tried very hard not to think about the ring he could still feel on his finger. It would end this torture, but he’d sworn an oath and he didn’t know what was going on with his family. He wondered if they were dead and shame swept through him at the faint hope he felt at the thought that they were and he could die. “I can sense your presence but not that of the others. What does that mean?”
“This place is enchanted to nullify any bonds between people inside and those outside. That is why you still feel a bond with me. That bond will only end when you die, just like any bond.”
“So I’m inside a magical Faraday cage.”
“I do not know what that is.”
“That’s not surprising.” Iain rolled his head to stare at the ceiling. “I order you to release me.”
“I would like to obey you, but my mistress has given me orders not to do that.”
Iain stopped talking to try and prevent his teeth from chattering from the cold. “S-s-s-s-stop t-the w-w-w-water,” he finally managed to get out. “C-c-c-cold.”
Immediately the water hose was pointed away from him. Barbie stepped closer. “I have to clean you. Mistress wants you clean for when she returns.”
“T-t-t-then get some w-warm water and a sponge and finish me up t-t-t-that way.”
Barbie stared at him for a moment before turning the hose nozzle off. “I’ll get the warm water.”
***
The house was located in the country in the central portion of Ireland. It was neat and tidy, with a small fenced garden of vegetables and some Chickenlittles standing outside the fence and dreaming of getting to the tomatoes. Scheherazade looked around warily as she strode up to the front door. She smiled slightly at the heavy knocker on the door and used it, making a booming sound that echoed throughout the interior of the building.
A moment later, the door opened to reveal a tall, muscular woman with long copper hair and gray-green eyes that were shadowed by the dark circles under them. She was wearing a comfortable looking caftan and looked vaguely tired, as if recovering from a recent illness. When she recognized the pokegirl on her doorstep, her eyes quickly surveyed the area behind the intruder before settling on the Dread Wolf. “Scheherazade, what brings you to my home alone? Are you ready to give another report?”
The Dread Wolf’s ears flattened. “No, lady Evangelion, I fear I do not have the time. Once you placed me ahead of Kerrik’s arrival so I could rescue him. I need your help with that again, for he has disappeared and I cannot find him.”
Evangelion gave her a startled look. “I thought you were bonded to him.”
“We all are, lady. He went shopping yesterday morning with Barbie, an astral Damsel who is his latest acquisition. They never returned and around noon our bonds with him just stopped working. We can’t feel him. We can’t even tell if he’s still alive.”
Evangelion stepped out of the doorway and pulled the door shut behind her. “If he were dead, you would know it. Your bond with him would die and you would all go through the psychic feedback associated with that event. It sounds like your connections to him are being deliberately suppressed. I have heard of spells that will do something like that.”
“Can you help us find him, lady?”
“I was warned by the Cosmic Awareness of his impending arrival and that allowed me to steer you to him. I feel nothing now. What about your Megami-sama? Often they are more in tune with the Awareness than I am, even sometimes so much that it proves detrimental.”
“Eve has tried until she can’t see straight and she’s getting nothing about him. It’s like he’s vanished from the planet.”
Evangelion frowned. “Could that in fact be what happened? Perhaps he has returned to his home.”
“Iain would never leave without us. Never! He promised not to. Wonder if the sun will come up tomorrow before you consider that Iain will break his word to us.”
The legendary blinked at the certainty in the Dread Wolf’s voice. “If you are so sure of that, then there is only one alternative. He is being held and whoever is holding him knows who and what he is. There are only a few individuals with that knowledge and fewer still with the reach to take him so boldly inside the Blue League. Of those, who would have the power to keep you and your Megami-sama from knowing instantly that he had been taken? Answer that question and you are on the path to finding your lost male.”
***
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