Into the Fire
Twenty Eight
“Can we gag them?” Dominique was watching the prisoners. Her mouth was tight with irritation. “They won’t stop whining.”
“I’m just about ready to toss them off the side of the mountain, myself.” Iain stretched and twisted to work out the kinks in his muscles. “But we can’t gag them or they’ll probably choke on their spit.” He pulled on his gloves and carefully tested each finger. “Although, since it’s my turn with Ronnie, in about half an hour or so you might get me to give you permission for those gags.” He made his way for the prisoners as Dominique laughed gently and headed towards JJ and Aethel.
April gave him a tired smile as she handed him the rope. “How fast are we going?”
“The prisoners and Adams are keeping our movement slowed down to a crawl, but we should still make the village before nightfall.” He tugged on the rope and Ronald Weiss glared at him. Iain smiled at the prisoner and patted the receiver of his shotgun. “All you have to do is try to escape and I won’t have to do this with you anymore. After all, you shot me, so I guess I should return the favor.” The prisoner grimaced and looked away.
Iain had explained to both of the drug makers that if they tried to escape, he’d just shoot whoever it was and leave the would-be escapee for the ferals regardless of whether they were dead or alive.
Iain had too few harem members available to carry the prisoners and so each of them had their hands bound together and were led. Scheherazade was guarding Selma McCord while Iain and April took turns with Ronald while the other stood ready to intercept an escape attempt. The prisoners kept stumbling and falling on the rough trail, but nobody really cared except for the fact that it slowed them down. In the meantime, Dominique kept Adams levitated and pulled him along while Aethel kept a close eye on her patient. That left Eve to lead the group back to Dingle and keep an eye out for ferals or other hazards.
Iain’s time estimate was way off and it was completely dark by the time they opened the door to the house and put Adams on the couch. He watched the prisoners being tied up in a corner of the room as he pulled out his pokedex to send a prewritten text message to Teresa letting her know they had returned with Adams.
JJ saw him putting the piece of electronics away as Dominique carried their packs up the stairs to their rooms. “I thought you were a tradesman, Grey.”
“I went the usual path of tamer to tradesman. Is it important?”
He scowled. “I didn’t realize you had a pokedex. You could have let me call Teresa from the Spark mill. Why didn’t you?”
Iain plastered an exaggeratedly thoughtful look on his face for a second before grinning. “Yeah, I could have, but I told you that Eve’s wants come way before yours. I didn’t see any reason for you to have the chance to try to make your wants more important than hers. In any case it wouldn’t have worked since I’m not fucking you, but I like to keep needless complications out of my life whenever possible. Having Teresa trying to give me orders over the com definitely falls into the category of needless complication.”
Vanessa came down the stairs, closely followed by a faintly scowling Dominique. “Iain, you’re back!” She hugged him hard enough to make him gasp slightly before looking around the room. A frown appeared as she took in the one legged man on the couch and the prisoners in the corner. “You know, if you were going to bring me something, flowers would have been fine. I don’t have anywhere to keep these.”
April burst out laughing and headed for the kitchen. “I’ll make some tea. Aethel, you can help. When’s the last time the prisoners took a piss?”
“Less than an hour ago.” Scheherazade was leaning against the wall with her arms folded as she watched Selma and Ronald. “If they pee now I’ll make them lick it up.”
“Why do you have prisoners?”
Iain unwrapped Vanessa’s arms from around him. “Vanessa, this is Mr. Agent Adams of the BLSF’s investigative arm and these two are the former operators of a Spark mill that we stumbled across.”
Evangelion hadn’t survived for as long as she had by being slow on the uptake. “I don’t remember Teresa mentioning he was a cop.”
Eve gave her a slight smile. “That would be because she didn’t. Considering that she’s Adams’ superior and therefore definitely knew about it, Iain feels it was a serious mistake on her part. Since Iain got shot in the face while we were investigating the situation, I tend to agree with him.”
Vanessa blinked. “How did you get shot in the face?”
“The mechanics are pretty simple. For an instant in time, a small, high velocity chunk of lead tried to occupy the same space as my brain. Fortunately, I seem to be able to operate quite well with what little brains I have left.” He nodded towards the prisoners. “Mr. Weiss there took it upon himself to shoot me, but he was unable to penetrate my armor.”
“That’s good.” Vanessa gave Weiss a calculating look that the prisoner completely missed. Dominique saw it and her scowl deepened. “Your death at the hands of such as that would be quite the waste.”
“Well, I’m not dead.” His head came around at a pounding on the door and he rolled his eyes. “That heavy hand sounds familiar.”
“I’ll get it.” Dominique let the Officerjenny in and took up station behind her.
Teresa quickly examined the surroundings before focusing on the agent on the couch. “JJ, I’m glad you’re ok. We’ll have that leg back as soon as possible.” She swung around to face Iain. “What happened?”
“You sent us out to get a missing tamer catching ferals. We came back with an injured spy and three prisoners.”
Her eyes narrowed. “I want to know everything that happened.”
“I want to punch you in the face for keeping secrets that could have kept us from being hurt. Sounds like neither of us is going to get what we want.”
“You had no need to know.”
“I had no need to know that people were possibly out somewhere protecting a fucking drug lab and that you’d sent Adams out looking for it? You sent us after him, which meant you were sending us out after them and you send us blind! You’re right; I can’t possibly see where that might have been something vital for you to tell us.” He tossed her a pokeball and she juggled it for a second. “There’s the surviving pokegirl from the prisoners. You take that ball, him, and them,” he pointed at Adams and the prisoners in turn, “and all of you get the hell out of my home.”
“Iain, she can’t handle JJ and the prisoners all at the same time.” Eve touched him on the wrist and relaxed a little bit when he didn’t do anything.
“I don’t care.” Iain looked at Teresa and grimaced when Eve wrapped her fingers around his wrist and tapped him on the back of the hand with a fingernail warningly. “All right, take the prisoners and go. Adams is still in my care and I’ll take care of him until tomorrow morning. At that time his mothers will be contacted and they can come get him, if he is still here.”
“You do not give me orders, Grey.”
“Fine, since these aren’t your prisoners until you take them into your custody, I’ll just take them outside and cut them loose.”
“You can’t do that. They attacked JJ.”
Iain looked at the injured man. “Did either of these humans attack you or was it their pokegirls?” Adams pressed his lips together and glared at Iain, who shrugged. “I guess he only saw pokegirls. These two will probably verify that the pokegirls were acting without authorization.”
Selma and Richard were watching the argument with wide eyes. Richard nodded vigorously in the affirmative when Teresa glanced at him. At that Adams spoke up. “You said one of them shot you.”
“That’s hearsay.” Iain smiled and Scheherazade snickered loudly. “You didn’t see it and I’m not repeating anything. So either Teresa takes custody of two prisoners and gets them out of my house immediately or she can watch me walk a couple of unwanted guests to my door and bid them good night.”
“Iain,” Vanessa said quietly. “Engaging in a pissing contest with an official of the league is not going to end well or in your favor. All you can really do now is just to wait for her to leave and refuse her entrance again unless she has a warrant. Once she’s in your house your options are very limited.”
Dominique nodded. “She’s right.”
“Shit.” Iain rubbed his temples. “Suddenly I have a screaming headache.”
Eve frowned and took his chin, pulling his head around gently. “Iain, you’re bleeding.” She wiped his upper lip and showed him her fingertip covered with blood. “It’s coming from your nose. What’s wrong?” Blood was running down his nose and over his mouth in a slowly increasing flow.
“I don’t know,” he said dully, spraying a fine mist of blood as he spoke. “I’m just so furious and I can’t let it out.” Suddenly he doubled over and vomited bright red blood.
Teresa stared at him in shock.
Eve grabbed and scooped him up. “Shay, they can leave the house but they go nowhere else inside it. Dee, help her enforce my order.” She ran up the stairs to Iain’s room. He began convulsing violently as she laid him down in the middle of the bed and lunged for his pokepack where it had been laid against the wall. She released Irena’s pokeball from the pack and activated it. The Chibi Sanctuary Goth appeared. “Iain had a nosebleed and then he vomited fresh blood,” Eve said quickly as Irena put her hand on Iain’s head. “Teresa the Officerjenny is downstairs and he was mad at her when it happened.” Iain coughed, spraying crimson droplets on Irena and Eve.
Irena scrambled onto the bed and closed her eyes as she placed both hands on his chest. Iain went limp. “You got me to him in time. His pulse was over three hundred and there’s no telling what his blood pressure was. I’ve never seen this in a human and never in any male. Trust our Iain to be special in yet another way.” She peeled open his eyes and examined them. “He’s blown the pupils in both eyes. I think everything was due to his blood pressure being too high. And by too high, I mean he should have died from it. Fortunately I can’t find any irreparable damage to his brain. I’ll start healing him up and I’d like April to be available to spell me. She’s almost as well trained in trauma care as a Nursejoy would be and her cards will be a lot of help.”
“She’s yours for as long as you want her. What can we do?”
Irena opened her eyes. “I don’t know. I think this is a side effect of his magic and if it is then all we can do is try to keep him calm. You and I both know there are reservoirs of anger that I don’t think we can safely touch. I wish I knew more about psychic treatments, but I don’t think he’d let me do anything even if I did.”
“Probably not.” Eve began undressing Iain, wiping up the blood with his shirt. “All we can do is deal with one emergency at a time. I’m just glad we got through this one.”
Irena started with his shoes. “Scheherazade is filling me in. What are you going to do about the people downstairs?”
“Irena, after what just happened, if Teresa and the prisoners are still there I may throw them out myself.” She slid to her feet. “I’ll send April up, but I want to be down there first so Teresa doesn’t try to come up here and finds you. Don’t wander until I tell you its safe.”
The former Night Nurse snorted. “I’m not going downstairs. If I do, I’ll hurt Teresa and we’ll have to dispose of her corpse.”
Eve headed downstairs where April was serving tea to Teresa and JJ while Vanessa was cleaning up the vomit with Dominique’s help while Scheherazade watched alertly. She knew it was an act and that her harem sisters were ready to act in a heartbeat. “I’m back and he’s resting.” Everyone who knew her relaxed slightly at the Megami-sama’s words. April, go upstairs and keep an eye on him.”
The Duelist nodded and ran up the stairs as Teresa gave Eve a concerned look. “Is he ok?”
Eve suppressed a very uncelestial urge to tear this woman limb from limb for what she’d done to her husband and kept her face composed. “Iain should recover as long as he’s not unduly stressed in the near future. However, that means you do need to leave, since you are causing him a great deal of stress that’s contributing to the situation. Scheherazade and Dominique will help you get your new prisoners and Agent Adams to wherever you keep prisoners around here. We are, however, not going to take them all the way to Tralee. While Iain didn’t put it very diplomatically, you did withhold vital information that could have kept his illness from becoming an issue and because of that I feel we owe you nothing in the way of aid.” She waggled a finger gently as Teresa opened her mouth. “You knew there might be someone out there who would attack us for trying to locate your agent and you chose to withhold that information. As a Megami-sama, it is part of my solemn duty to correct failings on the part of those who uphold the law and you failed when you added needless danger to the mission you foisted on us. Even knowing about the potential for that added danger, we would have accepted the mission. You should have trusted us to do so.”
Teresa was slowly turning purple and her voice was a growl as she fought for control. “I couldn’t take that chance.”
Dominique checked Adams over before levitating him once more. He protested once and fell silent when it became evident that the Archmage wasn’t listening. Instead she spoke to the Officerjenny. “Yes, you could have. Under the Blue League’s Support Statute you could have deputized him if he’d refused to voluntarily look for Mr. Adams since he was the only person around who had a reasonable chance of success to aid a BLSF operative. It’s the same statute that’s used for tamer callouts. Of course, since it wasn’t an omega level threat you would have had to pay him for his time and it would have come out of your expense account. However, it’s not really an issue since it’ll probably be a cold day in Hell before you’re allowed in our house again. You see, while Iain didn’t test positive for it, he’s as stubborn as if he has the rebel blood curse and I don’t think he is going to soon forgive your lie of omission.” She took JJ by the hand and tugged him towards the door. “Even if he would forgive you, and sometimes he can be talked into that sort of thing, it doesn’t sound like my alpha is going to forget what you did. I’ve discovered that Eve has a very long memory for things that get her tradesman hurt.”
Teresa turned to Eve. “You’d hold me doing my job against me?”
The Megami-sama folded her arms. “You have to do your job. I have to do mine. It’s hard to find a tamer or tradesman who is willing to work with celestials without having to be coerced in one way or another, but I’ve managed to find one. For that reason, protecting Iain from getting injured is a part of my job that I take seriously and you, you arrogant bitch, almost got him killed by not telling us something that would have made us approach the Spark mill a great deal more cautiously than we did. Only the special protections that we, his harem, put into place kept him alive. Any other man would not have survived and I will indeed remember that fact until the day you die. Don’t worry, I will not refuse to listen to any request for aid from you, but I will never trust you again.”
Teresa had turned whiter and whiter as Eve had spoken. “I see. Will an apology to you do anything?”
“Do you intend to apologize to Iain?”
“I see no reason to apologize to him.”
“Then I see no reason for you to apologize to me.” Eve turned to the Dread Wolf as Teresa flushed scarlet. “Get the prisoners out of here. Remember Iain’s rules and you are not to go more than two kilometers outside of Dingle with the prisoners. Dominique, you can take Mr. Adams to his family’s home if Teresa has no place to keep him, but in no case are you and Scheherazade to split up. Is that clear?”
Dominique nodded. “Crystal, my alpha. Come along, Shay.” She pulled JJ outside as Scheherazade took the ropes and jerked the prisoners to their feet.
Eve bobbed her head to Teresa. “Good evening, officer,” she said crisply.
Teresa left without a word.
Vanessa gave the floor one last wipe and stood. “Was that necessary?”
“If Iain hadn’t had his armor on, he would have died. She was lucky I didn’t correct her in the same way I corrected Scheherazade when she almost got Iain killed.”
“How did you do that?”
“Vanessa, you can ask Scheherazade about that. If she wants to tell you what happened, she will. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to take Aethel home.”
Vanessa watched Eve head into the kitchen before she went upstairs to Iain’s room. “How is he?”
April glanced at her. “He’s sleeping. He ruptured several blood vessels in different parts of his body, but they’ve all been repaired.”
“How is that even possible?”
Irena smiled slightly from where she was washing Iain’s face with a cloth. “That is the ten million credit question. From what we understand, his magic may be causing it. If that’s true, all we can do is to help him keep an even emotional keel.”
“You mean his magic could kill him.” Vanessa nodded. “It reminds me of a couple of Sukebe’s first magical pokegirls. They too had no control and destroyed themselves. Alaka-whams were used in an attempt to sedate and train them, but it was a failure and the Magician breed had to be destroyed. Later, Sukebe used elements of the design in the prototype for the Witch. What can I do to help?”
“Don’t go around deliberately provoking him. You haven’t been, but don’t start.” Irena smirked. “You could wipe out Sanctuary while you’re at it, too.”
Vanessa shook her head and gently sat down on the edge of the bed. “While I have come to agree that Sanctuary is a threat to the world, I have also learned that it will fall to Iain and his harem to stop that threat. My direct involvement would lead to his death.”
April gave her an unfriendly look. “And can you tell us what we’re supposed to do to stop a government?”
“If I knew what would work, I would have already told all of you.” She reached out as if to stroke Iain’s hair and then put her hand back in her lap when April beat her to it. “My vision is almost always bits and pieces of what might be. It gives me hints as to what I should do in order to bring about the result I think best, but often I only know that the result will be the best for me and not what that result will be precisely.” She took his hand and clenched her fingers around his. “In this case I know that if I get directly involved, it is likely that everyone here except me will die. I know that if I instead give you support and remain with you, the best result will take place.”
“What will happen if you go away and leave us alone?”
“I know that my presence offends you, April. You wish to be the first to present him with children.” The legendary rubbed Iain’s fingers. “It is very likely that you may still get your wish, for I have seen that you will undergo parthenogenesis soon and it is uncertain as to how long it will be until I deliver.”
April’s face twisted. “That’s not funny.”
“I am not lying to you, April. I have no reason to. However, if you wish, I will allow Scheherazade into my mind far enough to confirm what I have told you.”
“Why would you do that?”
“I tell you this because I am not your enemy. I do not have the feelings for Iain that you do and it is unknown if I ever will, but I know that the path which leads to the best life for our children mandates that I tie my life with his. If I do not, in the best case they will not live to adulthood.”
Irena was watching her. “What’s the worst case?”
“I am murdered by the combined might of the other legendaries and a war the likes of which this world has never seen is fought over our children. Some would want our children to bring up as their own while others would want to experiment on them to see if they could have offspring of their own. A few would just want them dead.”
April flinched at the certainty in Vanessa’s voice. “That’s terrible.”
“The same fate awaits any pokegirl who is or becomes pregnant anywhere near Iain, once the others realize that he is the catalyst to my becoming pregnant.”
“Then we’ll just have to make sure they never realize that fact.” Iain’s voice was weak, but his eyes were clear and bright. “Am I going to live?”
Irena giggled softly. “Until you die.” She smirked at April’s horrified look. “However, it looks like that day isn’t going to be any time soon.”
“That’s good.” Iain slowly began sitting up. “What about Teresa and company?”
Vanessa let his hand go but otherwise didn’t move as April fussed over him. “They’re gone. Eve tore a strip off of Teresa and got rid of them. She’s taking Aethel back to wherever she came from.”
He chuckled weakly. “That’s my girl. So, what did I miss?”
Irena pushed him flat and straddled his chest. “That’s it. You’ve been asleep for less than an hour and you need a lot more than that. Now listen to your personal physician.”
Iain looked into her eyes and sighed. “Somehow I don’t think you ever took the Hippocratic Oath, but fine. April, please get Montsho and Hathor out of my pack and turn them loose.”
The Duelist blinked. “I should have thought about that. Sorry.”
“Your boyfriend was bleeding out of various orifices. It’s ok if you’re a bit distracted right then.” Iain started tickling Irena, who began laughing and trying to bat his hands away until she fell sideways. Then he sat up and finished pushing her off of him. “Except for a faint headache, I feel fine. I promise that I’ll go to bed tonight at a decent time and I’ll even let the girl be on top tonight.”
Irena smacked him without bothering to get up from where she’d fallen. “You’d better.” She grinned. “I like being on top.”
***
With one last look at Eve, who was sitting guard near the door to prevent him being disturbed, Iain closed his eyes and summoned the magical tome he’d been reading from his bedroom in the house to his lap. It was one of the exercises that the book itself suggested once the reader was roughly two thirds of the way through it and he’d been doing it ever since he’d reached that point. Now he was ready for the last exercise before he put the book’s teachings to work.
One of the things he’d emphasized in his writing about the Wolf family was the fact that a mage fully in control of his power eschewed unnecessary visual and auditory signatures when he or she did magic, so he focused his will as the book had instructed while at the same time also concentrating on not having there be any glows or sounds. He knew from Eve and the others that his eyes glowed when he upset and was determined to keep that from becoming a habit.
For nearly a minute nothing happened and then a second book appeared floating in the air in front of him. It was an exact copy of the book he held and was his contribution to the tradition that had resulted in the book he’d been led to. The new book glowed for a heartbeat as it purged itself of any magical essence or material evidence that could lead back to Iain. Then it vanished, moving to a library in the Silver River League where it would await the coming of this world’s next fledgling truewizard.
The first step complete, Iain bent his will to the second part of the exercise. For half an hour he concentrated until the book he held vanished and was instantly replaced with a new magical volume. The new tome was substantially thicker than the first, even though it weighed the same as the previous volume. This book had been created from the stuff of his interests and his strengths and would be his guide in finding paths down which to develop the skills that would be unique only to him. Thus did every truewizard advance, progressing in their education until they decided to stop learning. When he finished this book, Iain would create the next based off his interests at that time and continue onwards until he died or decided to stagnate.
Eagerly he opened the book and scanned the table of contents. Protective magic took up a great deal of the book with some offensive magic, some sexual based magic, some research ideas he was interested in and some magic to aid in reproduction sprinkled throughout. All of that made sense, considering his current situation, and wasn’t really surprising.
The last section was nothing but necromancy.
Iain groaned out loud when he remembered that Eirian had said he had an affinity for the dead and slammed the book shut. “Fuck. I like the Dragonesses, but,” he broke off and grimaced. “Fine. If it’s an affinity then I’ll master it. I really don’t want a stray thought pulling dead creatures out of the ground around me with no idea what to do next.” He looked at the tattoos of Sable and, for a change, Eirian. “After all, ladies, I do want to someday to be able to offer you your lives back.”
The silver Dragoness’ mind touched his. Remember that we may refuse you. You have already given us that right.
“Yeah, I remember.” Iain sighed and focused his will again, swapping his second tome for the first. It wasn’t really teleportation or translation, instead he forced the reality of the second book to change and become the reality of the first. He didn’t understand how the process worked and intended to figure it out someday when he had time.
If he lived.
Iain opened the book and reread part of it before closing his eyes and seeing what he wanted to do. Then, for the next five hours, he focused his will. When he opened his eyes again, he was soaked with sweat and stank like he’d been vigorously exercising the whole time.
Dominique had replaced Eve and the Archmage looked up from the glowing ball in front of her. “Are you done?” Too tired to speak, he merely nodded. She waved a hand and the ball vanished. “I was trying to monitor what you were doing, but I don’t understand most of it.” Crimson eyes searched his. “I am supposed to be the most talented magic user here and I really don’t like it when you do things I can’t duplicate. Will you explain it to me someday?”
Iain smiled and reached for a pitcher of water that had held ice several hours before and was now lukewarm. He poured himself a glass and drained it quickly. “I’ll be more than happy to explain it to you but, like I’ve said before, you’re still much more powerful than I am.”
“Iain, I know a lot more combat magic than you do and I have much more raw magic than you, but the fact that I am more powerful than you doesn’t change the fact that you can do things that I can’t.”
“And there are a lot of things you can do that I can’t,” he said quietly. “We’re all different. There’s stuff that Eve can do that neither of us can and stuff she can’t do that’s really easy for you.” He poured more water. “But overall, I am still easily the weakest person here, although I might be able to take Hathor, at least until she decided to actually fight. Then she’d beat me to a paste or turn me into that infamous bad swordsman, Bob Shiska.”
Dominique laughed. “I’ve heard of him.” She sniffed the air and made a face. “You stink.”
“No, I reek. If you see me shuddering, it’s really my clothes trying to keep away from me.”
“Do you feel any different? I mean, did it work?”
Iain shrugged and put the glass down to pick up the decanter and drink directly from it. He stopped when he had to breathe. “I’m as parched as a desert, but other than that, I feel like me. If it worked and made me immortal only time will tell.”
***
When Iain summoned his book from his room the Seeker slowed into a hover as it evaluated the magic it detected. More pulses followed and the Seeker felt its frustration spike when it realized that the magic now came from somewhere behind it and that it had probably flown past the fledgling without ever realizing it.
Mhodvitnar had created the Seeker with a great deal of endurance for battle with the fledgling but not a whole lot of speed since he’d never considered that the fledgling could be located on the other side of the planet. From the moment of its creation, the Seeker had flown east across land to the sea and then across the sea to more land. More sea and smaller pieces of land followed in succession until the Seeker had found a large land body and flown across it to a small section of ocean which had led to another large piece of land.
Now the magic signal was steady and the Seeker flew in a circle kilometers across as it refined the line it had to follow. The path suggested that the fledgling was across the small section of ocean and on the far side of the larger land body. It was still close enough to reach before the Seeker ceased to be.
Purpose would be fulfilled.
The fledgling would die.
***
Iain wrapped cloth around the plate and handed it to Hathor. She turned and carefully put it in the crate with the others. The crate was made of the processed cellulose that had taken the place of a lot of plastics, in this case probably made from masticated wood by Annts or Wasps. “Master, this box is full. I’ll have to get another one. Do you know where there are any?”
He nodded as he continued wrapping plates. “We left some empty ones in my bedroom.”
“I’ll be right back, sir.” The Milktit carefully turned her head to allow her horns passage and slipped through the doorway.
So far the packing was proceeding smoothly and Iain would be glad to be out of Dingle. The place was starting to wear on him even though yesterday had been a refreshing change. The mothers of JJ Adams had come by with their owner to express their gratitude for their son’s rescue. Jeffery Adams Sr. was a tall thin man with a hearty handshake that belied his age. He’d been a very successful tamer in his youth and had parlayed the money he’d made catching ferals into some rather lucrative investments that had allowed him to retire to his home village without having to worry about working for the rest of his life. He actually had two sons, but JJ was by far his favorite and he had been effusive in his gratitude. He’d even offered two pokegirls, one out of each of his women as a reward for the return of his child. Iain had politely declined the of-barely-legal-age Rosebreasts and Jigglyslut since he hadn’t wanted them in his harem and it would have been an insult to accept and then sell the two girls like they were nothing important.
It might have even been an insult to the girl’s father.
Scheherazade came in and released Montsho and Irena from pokeballs. “Got anything else to go yet?”
The pokegirls got loaded up with stuff for the move and then put back into their pokeballs for transport. “I’ve got a full crate of crockery but we haven’t put the lid on it yet. How’s the transporting going?”
Montsho grinned. “Boob.”
Irena burst out laughing as Iain’s eyebrows went up. “You didn’t know? Dominique’s spell makes her scan as a Chocoboob. She doesn’t really look much like one, but we’re going to claim she’s feralborne, doesn’t like to change into her transport form and came from somewhere really hot which will explain her minimal feathering.”
The Tyrannodame bobbed her head up and down dramatically. “Boob. Boob boobboob. Choco.” She grinned again and gave Iain a sideways glance. “Cuckoo for Chocoboobs.”
Iain laughed so hard he had to put down the plate he was holding before he dropped it.
Scheherazade cocked her head. “She says that from time to time. We’d been wondering where that came from. Did you teach her that?”
“I’m going to have to plead guilty as charged. This morning she asked me for puns involving cocoa. I didn’t ask why, but I taught her a catch phrase from a commercial for a cereal called Cocoa Puffs. It was ‘Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs’.” He chuckled. “Next time I’ll ask why she wants to know.”
“Did you teach her any other catch phrases?”
Montsho gave him a pleading look that Scheherazade didn’t see and Iain shook his head. “Nope.” The Tyrannodame smiled and winked.
Irena gave him a suspicious look. “I need to learn a truth detection spell,” she muttered.
“Now where’s the fun in that?”
April came into the kitchen and glared at everyone in the room. “And this is helping us to leave Dingle behind how? I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m not quite ready to let Teresa get another chance to kill one of us. In other words girls, get your asses upstairs now.” She watched them rush out of the room and spoke without looking in his direction. “You’re not helping, you know.”
“A friendly chat with them isn’t going to add a day to the time it’ll take for us to get out of here, April. You know that.”
She smiled slightly. “I do. I also know that if they take enough little breaks it will add significantly and the owner is coming by for a final inspection tomorrow morning.” He slipped an arm around her waist and she sighed. “That’s not fair. You know I find it difficult to stay irritated at you when you touch me.”
He looked surprised. “Really? I’ll have to remember that.” April smacked him and he grinned. “Unpacking will take a lot longer than the packing did. I don’t see why we can’t abandon the stuff you want to replace instead of taking it with us. This sounds like a great time to pare down so you can replace it with items you approve of.”
She shrugged. “I know, but it grates to leave anything behind for the villagers to snatch. I should have thought ahead and figured out where to donate everything I don’t really want. I’m just glad Eve didn’t want to fight me about redecorating.”
“She agrees with you.”
The Duelist blinked. “She’s never said anything about wanting new stuff.”
“It’s not as important to her as it is to you. She’d like matching things, but can get along perfectly well without them. You, on the other hand, really want them.”
“You’ve never really said anything about it. Do you mind?”
“Nope. A plate is a plate is a plate. As far as I’m concerned, as long as they aren’t so fancy you won’t let me eat off them and I have to put my food on the tabletop, I’m good. It’s so hard to eat soup on the tabletop.”
“You’re a barbarian, you know that?”
“You have no idea, April. I still use forks with the tines facing up and I don’t even use relish forks. I’ve just been hiding these sordid facts from you.”
She chuckled and kissed his cheek. “As long as you don’t use a spork at the dinner table I’ll forgive you.”
“I’ll remember that.” Iain patted her on the ass and let her go. “Now, if you don’t mind, I need to get back to packing the dishes before you come in here and yell at me for taking a break without you.”
***
Iain woke up when Irena punched him in the side. He sat up and realized she was still asleep and in the throes of the nightmare he was sharing with the delta bonded members of his harem. She thrashed and moaned almost in unison with Scheherazade, who was sleeping on the floor. Now that he was awake, the dream had ended and slowly their activity subsided as they became quiet. Elsewhere in the house he knew that Eve, Dominique and April were doing the same thing.
He stroked the chibi Sanctuary Goth’s raven hair with a tender touch and pulled himself slowly up to sit against the headboard. Letting them experience his dreams with him did make his dreams much more bearable, but watching what it did to the women he cared for so deeply was worse for him than the dreams had ever been. He’d stop it again, but he’d promised April and he kept his promises no matter how much they hurt.
There were mental exercises that he’d used before he came here to deal with the anger issues in his life, but after his time on the Free Bitch, they’d stopped working and multiple attempts to use them had failed. Now perhaps, with his new abilities, they might work again.
Iain closed his eyes and imagined the site of the prison. He was very familiar with it, having used this image ever since he was almost a teenager and realized that inside his soul lurked something not quite human, something that releasing would be bad for him and the things inside his bubble. The image always opened with the prison sitting in the middle of a vast, featureless plain, with him appearing on the edge of that plain. Around the plain a forest of white forms stood silent sentry around the prison, the trunks of the long dead trees glowing softly from lichen that draped their skeletal forms. This place was his mental construct and with his first step he traversed the plain and was standing in front of the prison proper. He walked over the drawbridge and stopped to look at the portcullis. The bars of it were bent in wild directions, all pointing outward, the welds shattered from some incredible force that had battered the portcullis until it failed, allowing it to escape into the world that was Iain’s mind.
He imagined the change and the bars crumbled into dust that a howling burst of wind swept into the fosse. In their place suddenly appeared dull black gates a meter thick, made of a material that until he’d been snatched to the pokegirl universe he could have been willing to bet money only existed in games or his imagination. Now he wasn’t as sure of anything, but it still existed in his mind and here it was just as potent as it would be if it did exist in reality.
He stepped forward and the gates swung open before he could touch them. The empty courtyard echoed with his footsteps as he picked his way through the rubble scattered over it and crossed to stop in front of the prison proper. It was a featureless dome that stretched to tower over the walls that surrounded the prison and was made of the same material as the new wall gate.
The prison also had a gate, and it had been shattered outward to provide the rubble that decorated the courtyard. Iain thought about it and the rubble dissolved to sink into the ground while a new gate made of the same material as the prison appeared and swung open. It only opened to the inside, and when shut would provide a complete seal to keep inside what he hoped to recapture today.
A warm, gentle breeze coming from inside the prison swept over Iain as he stepped through the prison gate and into the single chamber underneath the dome. It was dominated by a yawning pit that took up most of the room in the floor of the chamber. A shattered cap and broken chains on all sides had once covered the pit as the first line of containment, but now only remained as sign of the control he’d lost on the Free Bitch and not yet recovered.
Iain thought and the top of the pit changed, extruding massive threads that matched the ones on the cap as it was recreated. The top of the cap now grew lugs while the chains vanished and were replaced with massive square pillars that would slide inwards on rollers to cover the cap once it was back in place.
Now the prison had been restored again and was hopefully ready this time to contain the fear and fury that threatened to destroy everything around him and finally take his life. If not controlled, then one day it would unleash his magic in some way that he couldn’t stop and would kill everything important to him. Or he would lose control, like he almost did in front of Teresa, and murder someone that they couldn’t fix. He’d lose his family for something like that, either taken from him or killed trying to protect him and soon after he’d lose himself forever.
At that point, if he was lucky he would die.
Iain prepared himself as he walked out of the prison and over the drawbridge, glancing down into the fosse as he did.
The actual mental exercise was easy in execution, and variants of this technique were sometimes used in anger management courses. Iain imagined a force that started at the tips of his fingers and toes and shoved the anger down his hands and feet into his wrists and ankles. From there the anger was forced towards the core of his body and into his throat to his brain and into the mental construct that was the prison. In his mind’s eye it manifested as a glowing miasma that swirled with lights that were his mind’s representation of the fear and hurt contained within it. It screamed against the force that penned it backwards and slowly drove it through the wall gate, across the courtyard, into the chamber and finally into the pit. The cap flew up to cover the pit and rotated as it threaded itself into the mouth of the chasm until it hit bottom. Then the pillars rode forward on the rollers, sliding together in the center of the cap until the ends met in an earth shaking crash. The lugs rested against the sides of the pillars, meaning that the pillars would have to be removed before the cap could be unscrewed.
Then the gate of the dome swung shut, followed by the gate in the outer wall.
Iain let himself relax. If done properly, the exercise made him feel empty for a time, as if all his emotions had scattered into the void left after all the anger had gone.
He felt that way this time and smiled.
With his perception, even with his eyes closed he watched as Eve came into the room, followed by Dominique. Both of them sat down on the bed and looked at each other before Eve poked him hard in the shoulder.
He opened his eyes and Eve blinked at the calmness in them. “Yes, my wife?”
She gave him a mildly annoyed look. “I thought you promised you wouldn’t lock us out again.”
“I haven’t.” He smiled slightly. “I managed to get my anger and fear under control.”
“Just like that.” Dominique’s voice was flat.
“Just like that.” His voice was equally emotionless.
Eve sighed and ran her fingers through Irena’s hair gently. “You know that what you did doesn’t really deal with your anger. All you did was to lock it up and that’s not very healthy.”
“I know it’s not what you want, but right now it’s a lot better than what was happening to me since the Free Bitch and especially after I got taken by Aglaii and Barbie. I was losing the ability to be functional at all.” He reached out and took Eve’s hand. “Later, you two can help me to actually deal with my issues, but we all know that right now is not a good time.”
“He’s right.” Scheherazade pushed to her feet. “You know it, I know it and Irena, who is pretending to be asleep, is aware of it.”
The chibi Sanctuary Goth opened her eyes and stuck out her tongue. “You are an annoying bitch, you know that?” Instead of trying to sit up, she pressed her body more tightly against Iain’s legs and began nibbling on his thigh.
The Dread Wolf’s ears canted amusedly. “I do.”
Dominique slid up the bed and looked into Iain’s eyes. “When we’re moved to this new world, you’ll let us help you deal with your anger?”
“I will.”
“Promise?”
“I’m making entirely too many promises right now. I am not going to obligate myself to something where you get to decide that the time is right, but I will work to not deliberately prevent you from doing this. That’s the best you’re going to get, Dominique.”
“Then I’ll take that.” She rolled her shoulders and sighed. “I never realized how much of my stress was from you.”
Irena snickered. “All of it was, I think.” Everyone laughed.
***
Iain was napping on the back porch when a voice softly called to him. “Mr. Grey?” He opened his eyes, fighting his first impulse to lunge for his shotgun, and saw the owner of the house they were renting, Paddy Connolly. His first name was really Patrick, but he’d insisted on being called Paddy when he’d shown Iain the house and again every time they met around Dingle.
Iain fought that impulse again when he realized the Officerjenny, Teresa, was standing behind the homeowner. “Good morning, Mr. Connolly.”
Connolly’s eyes twinkled. “Paddy, Mr. Grey.”
Iain’s lips twitched in a ghost of a smile. “Paddy it is then.” He checked his pokedex. “You’re a bit early, sir. Eve will be back in about ten minutes and I’d like to hold off on the final walkthrough until she returns. Would you and Teresa like some tea?”
“We would, Mr. Grey.” They followed Iain through the back door and into the kitchen.
The Officerjenny looked slightly uncomfortable as she accepted her cup. “I’m here because Paddy asked me to be present in case there’s a dispute over any of his findings. It’s one of the things I do as part of my job around here.”
Iain nodded. “That makes sense. How’s Mr. Adams doing?”
“He’s in hospital in Dublin and is doing well. Your Nursejoy did an excellent job of caring for him.”
“She’s not mine, but I’ll pass the praise along.”
Teresa blinked. “Who does she belong to? I don’t think she’s a civil service pokegirl.”
Iain looked at her evenly and turned to his other guest. “So, Paddy, how are your twin boys doing on their taming journeys? Have they split up yet or are they still having fun confusing their harems as to who is who?”
Teresa’s cheeks turned pink but she remained silent as Iain and Paddy chatted.
A short time later, Eve came in with a gracious smile. “Paddy, it’s good to see you again. I hope you don’t find too much to try to bill us over for the house.”
Connolly grinned back. “The kitchen is cleaner than when I rented the place to you. If the rest of the house is that way, I may owe you money instead. Is there anything you want to declare before we get started?”
“We broke a window on the second floor, but it’s been replaced. The bedrooms have all been repainted. Iain didn’t like that rust color you had up there and now its goldenrod.”
Iain didn’t remember expressing an opinion on the bedrooms, but then again he hadn’t really liked the color. Perhaps Eve had pulled the information from his mind.
Perhaps.
Paddy chuckled. “I’m a man, Eve. I don’t know colors. What is goldenrod?”
“It’s a dusty gold, which means it is gold with some brown tint in it to soften the hue.” Paddy blinked at Iain, who smiled slightly. “I used to match colors for people.”
“You’ve led an unusual life, Grey.”
Iain laughed. “You have no idea.”
Eve was watching her husband with bemusement. I’ve never seen you like this.
You didn’t meet me until after my first bout of torture, remember?
Oh, yes, that’s right. It’ll be interesting to see what you are like when you’re more relaxed.
I don’t think you’ll find anything truly repulsive, but in any case we’re already married and you’re stuck with me.
Eve covered her mouth with her hand for a second and then put her hand on Iain’s shoulder. “If you’re done with your tea, we’d like to get this done, Paddy.”
“Sounds good, Eve. I’ll miss you and Grey. It’s nice having renters who pay early for a change.” Connolly pushed to his feet with a grace that belied his eighty winters.
Teresa rose with the others. “I was curious as to where you are moving to. Where is that?”
“We’re relocating to the ruins of Edinburgh. I’ve got some work to do there and after that we’ll decide if we’ll settle in Inverness or Glasgow.” Iain eyed her for a second and started to add something else, but apparently changed his mind in mid-thought and closed his mouth.
“Feel free to speak your mind. What is it, Mr. Grey?” Her voice was curious, but her eyes held a challenge to him.
He ignored it. “I realized I was going to be needlessly provocative, but there’s really no reason to poke you for my own amusement. You are just trying to do your job.”
She gave him a slightly confused look. “I have to admit that’s very understanding of you.”
Thank you, Iain.
He didn’t look at the Megami-sama. I probably don’t deserve your gratitude. She’s a calculating bitch and if I found her bleeding out in an alley, it’s true that I wouldn’t finish her off. However, not only would I not render aid, I might just stick around to watch. Eve gave him shocked look and he shrugged. I’m not mad anymore, but that doesn’t mean I’m really all that different.
I’ll keep that in mind. “Paddy, I think we’ll start in the basement and work our way up from there.”
***
Because there were only a few satellites in space anymore, the locator transmitter on a pokedex could only find a user to within a hundred square kilometers or so and, if truth be told, just like satellite communications, not all pokedexes had transmitters in them in the first place. Austin Drummond’s and Iain Grey’s pokedexes did not have transmitters circuits or satellite communications but the shiny new Blue League issued pokedex for Kerrik Wolf had both, although he’d only been told about the satellite com system.
However, as Irena had pointed out when the harem had been working to rescue Iain from Aglaii and Barbie, radio triangulation was commonly used after satellite systems determined the general area of someone. In their newly constructed home they were in radio range of the repeater network that ran from Tralee to Dingle and because of this they kept all of Iain’s pokedexes in his pokepack and brought them out once a day for five minutes to see if he’d gotten any messages. For the most part it had become an amusing opportunity to see what kind of spam he’d gotten in each of his accounts. To be as safe as possible, they also varied and even tracked the time of day when the pokedexes were activated to ensure they didn’t fall into a pattern that could be used to compromise them in some way.
Iain had been amused to find that apparently even today tamers had issues with their perceived size and performance, or at least the modern equivalent of snake oil salesmen thought they did since a lot of the spam touted cheap remedies for making penises bigger or keeping them hard longer. Considering the availability of dragon dust and stamina potions he thought it was stupid, but then there were always idiots who could be suckered into giving their money for nostrums.
There were also some ads which suggested someone hoped he thought his breasts needed to be bigger, but he put that down to his email addresses being gender neutral.
He turned on the Drummond pokedex and waited while it ran through its startup cycle and reached out to the radio network to download his mail. Amongst the spam was a single text message from an anonymous sender. He pulled it up to read. “Fuck.”
Eve looked up from the Kerrik Wolf pokedex. “What is it?”
Iain read out loud. “The tag line is ‘Progress Report’ and the message is ‘Your progress report is required at club headquarters. Seek the high council of your leader immediately.’”
Eve blinked. “Does that mean what I think it does?”
“If you think it means that Kirabo wants to talk to Irena, then yes.”
“She really wants to talk to Austin.”
Iain snorted. “Austin has that pesky Y chromosome that most Sanctuary Goths are allergic to except when they want laid. She wants to talk to Irena to get the information that Austin has.”
Eve chuckled. “It amounts to the same thing. Are we going to brief Irena and let her give the report or instead have our chibi rely on her competent underling to do it?”
He looked thoughtful for a moment. “I think we’ll all go along. Irena can report, but I’ll be available in order to clarify anything. I really hope we can catch her at work.”
The Megami-sama frowned. “Why do you want to meet with her there?”
“She works at the council building and that would give us teleport points inside it. Considering we want to do something suitably horrible to them, that could prove rather useful in the future.”
“You don’t think they’ll have a block against teleportation? Not having one would make them kind of easy to attack.”
“Well, the council members are all Sanctuary Goths. High ranking officials tend to become lazy and not having to commute to work is a significant perk. I think they might have some way to keep the riffraff from teleporting in, but we have you and Dominique to figure out a way around that.” He smirked. “It may require a key of some kind, but if so then we’ll find a way to get our hands on one. Granted, getting a key may be a bit hard on the original owner, but hey, better them than us.” His smile faded. “Unfortunately bashing someone over the head and taking their key would just warn the council members that a potential attack is coming.”
“We’ll figure something out.”
He powered down the Drummond pokedex. “It’s all moot right now since we still don’t have a weapon to use against them.”
“Like I just said, we’ll figure something out.” Eve kissed him on the cheek. “The fact that my husband is an author and isn’t wallowing in anger anymore might help us to come up with a way.”
“I hope you’re right. Let’s get ready to go to Africa and plan on leaving tomorrow morning around ten. That’ll let us arrive in Sanctuary city at eleven local and should put Kirabo at work.”
The next morning Iain stepped outside and stretched as he checked the time. A large area to the left of their house had been designated as the first garden and he surveyed it silently while waiting for the others. Vanessa, Scheherazade and Montsho had been busy breaking ground there the last few days. They’d been breaking a lot more than just ground since the area was still inside the boundaries that encompassed the original village and they’d found old foundations, pipes, cables, a bit of roadway and part of a centuries old sewer that would need to be filled in after everything else was cleared out.
Originally the ladies had been piling up the rubbish not too far from the garden plot until Iain had discovered what was going on and had gone to Eve to mention that it made a blind spot in their defensive perimeter since it blocked the view from the house to the edge of the cleared area in that direction. Eve had gone to verify that he was right and immediately ordered the rubbish heap moved to a gully a kilometer away. Vanessa questioned the necessity for the move, but after the Megami-sama explained why, Vanessa had apologized for not thinking about that herself and the rubbish had been promptly moved.
“You look thoughtful this morning.” Scheherazade licked his cheek in greeting and began watching the area around them for threats.
“Is that going to be a vegetable or flower garden?”
The Dread Wolf’s ears flicked. “It’ll be a bit of both, actually. Most of it will be vegetables, but we’re hoping to get a crop of herbs out of it too before winter. Eve says it shouldn’t be a problem since she can control plants like Elf pokegirls can and that we will harvest multiple crops before then. I’ve never seen that. It should be interesting.” She glanced at him. “And since both vegetable and herb plants flower, it’s also a flower garden.”
Iain smiled softly. “I stand corrected. Next time I’ll put the word traditional in front of the phrase flower garden.”
“Can I ask an odd question?”
“Scheherazade, you can ask any question you want.”
“Is it my imagination, or are you sleeping more lightly ever since you got your nightmares under control?”
“It’s not your imagination. The truth is that I’ve always been a light sleeper. Up until recently I was always tired since my sleep was neither restful nor uninterrupted. I guess I was sleeping a lot heavier when I was asleep. Now that I’m getting a decent amount of rest, I’m going back to sleeping lightly.”
Dominique came outside, settling her pack on her back as she did so. “I think we may have to dig up the septic system. It’s not draining properly.”
Iain shrugged and nodded towards Scheherazade. “If we have to, but we’ll start by looking for a blockage from fur.”
“I heard that.”
“That’s good since you’re standing right next to him.” Dominique flashed a grin as the Dread Wolf glanced at her. “It’s probably just new house issues but you are blowing your coat right now and you don’t like being brushed that much.”
“It’s not that bad.”
Iain ran his fingers through the fur on Scheherazade’s side and held up his hand to display the fluff tangled in his fingers before briskly wiping his hands clean. “Yes it is. I had a Siberian Husky who blew her coat at least twice a year and each time she gave up enough fur to make an adult Bichon Frise. You’re like she was and you’re four times her size.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s a dog that weighs roughly twelve pounds. Uh, that’s around five and a half kilos.”
Scheherazade shot him a look. “Bite me.”
“You like that too much.”
She started chuckling. “I do, especially when you bite me on the back of the neck while we’re fucking.”
“Not while you’re blowing your coat. It makes me gag.”
“Hey! TMI, people!” Dominique gave them a disgusted glare. “Too much information for me.”
“You should share him with us more.” Unnoticed, Montsho had joined the group. “It would let you know more about what we like when we’re with him.”
The Archmage shrugged. “I’m not big into sharing if I don’t have to.”
Eve came out with Irena, April and Hathor. “Vanessa is going to stay here and hunt ferals while we’re gone. She says she’s seen signs of a group of Eva moving in after the construction finished. They’re sneaky bitches and she wants to clear them out before they figure out how to get in the garbage pit.”
“You won’t get any argument from me on that.” Iain reached out and took Eve’s hand. “It’s to the base camp, ladies, where we’ll spend a few hours before calling on our factor.”
Once at the base camp, Iain’s eyes narrowed. The firewood they’d left behind had been scattered wildly and the remains of the food from the hidden cache were everywhere. “Shay, Dee, scout the area from overhead. Eve, Montsho are on the ground perimeter. April and Irena are with me.” Hathor dissolved into red energy as Iain pressed the recall button on her pokeball. “Secure the area, ladies.”
A few minutes later Eve returned with Montsho. The Tyrannodame pointed west. “There were four of them. They scouted the camp and cleaned out the cache before heading that way several days ago. There’s not much scent left, but I think they were Cheetit or some other cat.”
“We shouldn’t have advertised the presence of the camp to non-ferals by leaving the cache.” Eve was watching Dominique swoop by. “We’ll put all of our supplies in the pokepacks next time. Do you think we should switch to one of the alternate sites?”
Iain had been thinking along similar lines. “It’s unlikely that feralborne feral pokegirls would have opened the canned food, so whoever was here was either not feral or had a light feral state and had encountered cans before. In either case they might decide to return. We move to one of the alternates we picked out.”
April smirked. “Vanessa hasn’t been to them yet.”
Eve nodded. “You’ll go back, get her and take her to all four of them right now. We’ll be at the alpha site, so bring her there last. She can go home on her own.”
April sighed. “I had to open my big mouth. Let me make sure we’re talking about the same place. The alpha site is the one near the river, right?”
“That’s right.”
“Fine.” She shrugged out of her pokepack and tossed it at a surprised Eve. “I’m not hauling this dead weight around while I’m hauling our other dead weight around.” Then she vanished.
The alpha site was located within sight of a riverbank and was roughly two hundred kilometers from the original base camp. After a quick search of the area, Iain settled down and changed his appearance to that of Austin Drummond. Then he summoned his tome while waiting for April to arrive with Vanessa.
***
The Seeker registered the new magical pulses from the fledgling and, if it had been possible, would have screamed in frustration. Not only had the fledgling moved without being detected, it was now somewhere far to the south. It banked and changed direction to the new heading, now unsure if it had the range necessary to reach its prey.
Purpose would only be denied if it could not.
***
The arrival pad was unchanged and an adult Irena led Eve and Iain off of it before she released Montsho, Dominique, Scheherazade and April from their pokeballs. There were four Dameosaur guards who watched them without interest until the Tyrannodame appeared. Then two of them scowled until Irena fixed them with a hard look and they turned uneasily away. “Montsho, find out what’s the best way to get to the High Council building.”
“Yes, mistress. You could just order one of the guards to escort us.”
“No, thanks. Somehow I doubt they put their best people on guard duty.”
“That is probably true, mistress. I shall return in a moment.” The Tyrannodame headed off to talk to the guards.
Everyone was tightly wound as they surveyed their surroundings. There was always the possibility, however remote, that somehow they’d found out that Iain, Kerrik and Austin were all the same person and that this was a trap.
A loud crack brought Iain’s head around just in time to see a Dameosaur somersaulting through the air to bonelessly crash to the ground. The other three Dameosaurs were staring at Montsho in stunned surprise. One of them shifted to her battle form only to change back when one of the others barked an order at her. The fallen Dameosaur began stirring and Montsho turned her back on the fallen pokegirl and spoke briefly to the others before deliberately walking back to Irena and her harem sisters.
Irena folded her arms and Montsho went to one knee in front of her. “What was that about?”
“The one I hit offered you and, through you, me, insult. I told her to stop running off at the mouth and she repeated the insult. I then administered a correction. It was within our rights to kill her for what she said about you. Should I have, mistress?”
Eve murmured in Iain’s direction. “Our timid sister has found her limits with those who used to abuse her.”
“Good.”
Irena made a face. “Get up, Montsho. There will be no killing unless I specifically order it.”
The Tyrannodame rose and grinned widely. “Yes, mistress.” She pointed at the city. “I have directions to the High Council building, mistress. It’s on the other side of the city. Should we walk or do you want to take one of the buses? A bus will take us to the center of Sanctuary and we can change to another bus there that will take us almost to the High Council building.”
Irena glanced at Iain, who shrugged. “We’ll take the bus. I want to see what they’re like.”
“Yes, mistress. It would be normal for you, as a Sanctuary Goth, to board first with your harem and pet. The mistresses do not wait for others.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“It’s also customary for you to sit surrounded by your harem, with your pet behind you.”
“Thank you, Montsho.”
The bus stop had half a dozen pokegirls of various breeds standing around or sitting on one of the benches stationed for that purpose. They all gave Irena a wary look, but didn’t say anything.
About fifteen minutes later a trailer driven by a sour looking Catgirl pulled up. Montsho moved to stand next to the rear door while people got off in a rush. When the last had exited, she motioned to Irena. “Mistress, the ride is smoothest in the middle.” Without waiting for the Sanctuary Goth, she boarded the trailer and snarled loudly. “You lot make room for my mistress or you’ll be thrown off.” Space suddenly appeared in the middle of the trailer. Montsho bowed to Irena. “This way, mistress.”
The trailer was set up without seats so everyone on it had to stand. Once everyone else had boarded it lurched into motion. The bus moved much faster than a normal walking pace and it was only about ten minutes before it stopped at the central depot. There they switched to an outbound bus headed in the right direction and continued on.
They’d been on it for a few minutes when Iain leaned forward slightly. “Dominique, could I please borrow your pistol for a moment?”
The Archmage frowned and looked at Irena. “Well, mistress?”
Irena was looking over her shoulder at Iain with a puzzled expression. “Go ahead. I know he’s not supposed to be armed, but I’ll allow it this time.”
Dominique produced her 9mm and handed it to Iain, who spun around and drove the pistol’s muzzle into the throat of a Gypsy who had been standing behind him. The bug type stared at him with suddenly wide eyes. “I didn’t say anything when you copped a feel and I didn’t say anything when you pinched my ass, either. But your hand stays outside my pants or I’ll paint the roof of this bus with your brains. Do you hear me?”
His voice was as normal as if he were discussing the weather and that frightened Eve.
“I’m sorry! Please don’t kill me!”
Iain was suddenly shoved sideways and he fought to keep his finger from the trigger as he worked to keep his balance. Montsho stepped past him and grabbed the Gypsy by the throat. “Driver, stop this bus!”
The Catgirl hauled back on the reins and hit the brake so abruptly that a few people fell down as the bus halted. Montsho dragged the Gypsy to the door and slammed it open before hurling the screaming pokegirl out of the vehicle. She shut the door and turned to survey the other passengers, her face a study in anger. “You do not touch my mistress’s pet! I will kill the next person who does so!” Suddenly there was a space around Iain. Montsho looked towards the front of the bus. “Driver, continue on.” The vehicle lurched back into motion.
Iain handed the pistol back to Dominique as Irena put her hand on his and whispered to him. “Why didn’t you say something?”
He kept his voice down too. “I figured it was normal behavior for around here. It happened on the other bus, too.”
Montsho scowled at nothing in particular. “I do not ride the bus, but we do not have an established teleport point at the arrival platform closest to the High Council building. My first shujaa mistress never went to the council and when she did come to the city, she never brought me with her.”
Eve nodded. “We’ll find that platform on our way out and start using it.”
Dominique shook her head. “I suggest we find that platform now and come back to the capitol tomorrow to meet with our factor. That’ll let the memory of what happened here dull down a bit.
Everybody looked in Iain’s direction without looking directly at him. He thought quickly. “Then we get off at the next stop and go looking for the platform. We’ll spend the night at our camp and come back tomorrow morning.” He rubbed his rump ruefully. “And we can see how many bruises I have. Some of those girls have sharp nails.”
***
Iain Grey - Tradesman
Eve - Megami-sama (maharani)
Dominique - Blessed Archmage
Scheherazade - Dread Wolf
Irena- Chibi Sanctuary Goth
April - Duelist
Montsho - Tyrannodame
Hathor - Milktit
Dragonesses
Eirian - Silver
Skye - Blue
Emerald - Green
Sable - Black
Aurum - Gold
Beryl - Red