Into the Fire
Thirty One
“You seem to spend a lot of time right here sitting on your ass while everyone else trains.” Ninhursag folded her arms behind her back and rocked on the balls of her feet as she watched him. “You allergic to training?’
“I am training.” Iain lifted his tome slightly. “Right now studying magic takes priority over trying to increase my physical conditioning any further.”
Harvest colored eyebrows went up. “Why?”
“First, I do physical conditioning twice a week to keep in tone and we all know I can’t get as strong as a pokegirl. Second, if my magic goes wild on its own it could kill me and everyone around me and I want to prevent that from happening.”
The Elfqueen sat down on the bench next to him. “I don’t agree with your reasoning, but it’s better than the usual ‘I’m a mage and I don’t have to’ excuse.”
He closed the book and regarded her for a bit. “You think I should be doing more training. Why is it important to you?”
“I could do worse than this place.”
“I don’t think I’ll be using that ringing endorsement as a testimonial on our website, should we ever set one up.”
She chuckled. “You’re going to make me have to come out and say it, aren’t you?”
“No, you made it necessary for you to have to come out and say it.”
Ninhursag blinked. “What do you mean?”
“You made me promise to keep my hands to myself. You’ll have to specifically release me from that promise before I’ll so much as hug you.”
“You’ve been watching me.”
He nodded. “Of course I have. You’re a beautiful woman, superior breeding partner and I’m not breeding you. I watch the ones I am breeding, too.”
“I can accept Eve as my, uh, maharani.”
“That’s good, considering that I appointed her and the job isn’t coming up for reassignment.”
She smiled. “Trust me, I heard all about that from Dominique and April. Eve had a few words to say about it as well.” The smile faded. “Iain, I have had the situation explained to me several times by everyone here. They’re very protective of you, but I have figured out that this isn’t a regular harem situation and that I could easily fit in. I want to stay here and I want to be your woman. To that end I formally release you from your promise not to touch me and I ask that you take me to bed and fuck me repeatedly.”
Iain willed his book away and reached out to take her hand. “Remember when I said that I try to do what my ladies want?” He flashed a grin. “Requests like this one are why I do.”
***
“Iain.” Ninhursag kept her voice low.
He came awake instantly, reaching down between the mattress and the headboard to pull out a pistol she hadn’t known was there. His reply was a whisper. “What is it?”
“There’s nothing wrong and you can put that away. I want you to come with me.”
He stowed the pistol back where it belonged before he rolled out of bed and reached for his clothes. It was early morning and crickets sounded outside. “Where are we going?”
“Giuseppe is dead and my sisters are avenged. Now I have you to take care of and we’ve got some things to do.” She was wearing her armor and clothing. “I want my weapons.”
“Does that include a living bow?”
She blinked. “That is a closely held secret amongst the Elf breeds. How do you know about that?”
“Did Eve and the others tell you about the authors?”
“They did, but I thought they were exaggerating about how much you could possibly know.” She rubbed her chin while he dressed. “I used to have one, but I broke my bow during my first drunken rage and swore I wouldn’t have another until Giuseppe was dead. It wasn’t fair to the bow to kill it because I was pissed. I hadn’t considered another one, but now that you’ve got me thinking about it I would like one again.”
“Are we going to your house?”
“I’m almost never home, so I don’t keep anything of value there. We’re going to the Thorny base where I store the stuff that’s important to me. After that we’ll have to see about finding someplace for me to call a new bow.” She smiled when he hesitated. “I told Eve before bedtime where we would be going this morning and she said it was all right for you to go with me. She knows where we’re going, at least on the first leg. After that, she can find you with your delta bond.”
Iain pulled his boots on and closed the fastenings. “All right, I’m ready.”
The Elfqueen took his hand and suddenly it was bright daylight. She shielded her eyes with one hand and squinted. “Shit. Sorry about that.”
Iain blinked once and his eyes adjusted. “I’m ok.” He looked around. They stood on one side of the bowl of a valley surrounded by mountains capped with snow. “Where are we?”
Ninhursag’s eyes narrowed as she put her hand down. “How did you adapt that quickly from a completely dark bedroom?”
“It’s one of the mods I made to myself with my magic to avoid situations where I need valuable seconds to reorient.”
“Maybe I’ll see if I can do that too.” The Elfqueen surveyed the area around them. “To answer your question, I don’t know where we are. Only the Thorny inner circle knows where this base actually is. All I know is it’s called the Redoubt. I do know that they deliberately keep the location secret as part of the security. This place is one of their primary bases and has been in use since before I was born. My mother said it was a forward base during the Revenge War.” She pointed at the mountains. “The only way into or out of here is through teleportation. They keep a contingent of flying pokegirls on duty which kills anything that tries to come in or out of the valley, including feral pokegirls or humans, although I’ve never heard of any human coming here except the same way you did.” Brown eyes regarded him for a moment. “But if someone did, they probably wouldn’t mention it to me. After all, I’m a mercenary and, in their eyes, a security risk.” She didn’t sound offended. “I’d be the same way if it were my base.”
The Redoubt was a couple of kilometers away and Ninhursag set a rapid pace as they headed for it. Iain started laughing about halfway there and she stopped to stare at him curiously. “What is it?”
“Your test.”
“You figured it out?”
“Of course I did. I knew exactly what you were doing when we arrived so far from the base. It just so happens that I like hiking and used to do it all the time before got brought here. Granted, hiking for fun isn’t anything like the running for your life that I seem to be doing since I arrived, but if Scheherazade were still alive she could tell you stories about how I irritated her by making her walk so I could get more exercise. Eve can tell you some tales too.”
“Are you pissed at me?”
She squeaked in surprise when he reached out and gently pinched her nose. He flashed a grin at the sudden look of surprise on her face. “Bad elf. No cookie.”
She smiled in spite of herself. “You bastard.”
“I’ll have you know that’s just a rumor. Come on, let’s get your toys.”
“Toys? My weapons are anything but toys.”
“They’re all toys. After all, we’re all in the contest.”
“What contest?”
He grinned. “The contest where whoever manages to die with the most toys wins.”
“You’re strange.”
“No, I’m not. If I were Strange, I’d have a cape and a really big clunky amulet with an eye in it.” He sighed when she just looked confusedly at him. “Sorry, my humor can get a bit esoteric sometimes.”
She snorted. “Sometimes? From what I’ve seen and heard, it’s more like most of the time.”
“My humor was esoteric before I came here, so why the fuck not.” He gestured at the base. “Now how many dildos are there in your gear?”
She gave him a sultry smile. “Why, jealous? Don’t think you can compete with them?”
“I’m only worried about it if they come rated in horsepower.”
Ninhursag laughed. “I’d be worried about them then, too. Come on. The facility is protected by a teleport block that shunts anyone incoming to an arrival point just outside the main gate, so we’ll head there and check in with security before proceeding.”
The base was a sprawling collection of buildings protected by a four meter chain link fence topped with reinforced concertina razor wire. Ninhursag led them to the gate, which was guarded by a pair of Warrior Nun twins who were identical down to the ideograms on their hakima. One of them held up her hand in both greeting and a command to halt. “Ninhursag, welcome. Who is your friend?”
“Hello, Haruka.” She nodded to the other sentry. “Moe. His name is Iain Grey and he’s here to help me get some gear.”
“I don’t know that name. Is he on the access list, Moe?”
The second Warrior Nun typed his name into a pokedex that she carried. “No, he’s not. I’m sorry, Ninhursag, but you know he can’t come in unless he’s been cleared.”
“He is the tamer of a celestial who is a senior member of the Sisterhood.”
“That doesn’t matter, Ninhursag, since she hasn’t registered him.”
Iain put his hand on Ninhursag’s arm. “It’s ok. I can wait here.”
She glared at Haruka. “It looks like you will. I’ll get my stuff as quickly as I can. I can still enter, right?”
“Of course you can. You’re on the list.”
“Iain Grey, why do you darken my doorstep?” A familiar form was suddenly standing inside the gate.
Both sentries went to attention at the voice. “Commander!”
Iain smiled. “Hello, Lucifer. I’m here because I need to pick up some gear belonging to a member of my harem.” He shrugged. “At least that’s what I wanted to do, but I didn’t know I needed an appointment.”
Lucifer returned the smile. “Eve doesn’t have anything here. Did you add another member of the Sisterhood to your harem?”
Ninhursag waved a hand to get the Megami-sama’s attention. “I joined his harem, Lucy.”
Lucifer looked surprised and her eyes shifted to the sentries. “I authorize Iain entry to the base. His status will be updated later today giving him full access. Let him in.”
Moe nodded. “I’ll make him a pass, commander, so there won’t be any future mistakes. It’ll be ready in half an hour and he can pick it up on his way out.”
“Thank you. Ninhursag, could I have a moment of yours and Iain’s time?”
The Elfqueen grinned. “Of course, Lucy. Is this business or pleasure?”
“I’m not completely sure.” Lucifer led them away from the gate and stopped under a shade tree. She got straight to the point. “I won’t have you deluding Iain about your personal life. Does he know about your problem?”
“Lucy, thanks to his help, Giuseppe isn’t a problem for anyone anymore.”
Lucifer nodded. “I’m not surprised. Iain and his troupe are turning out to be rather resourceful when it’s necessary. Is this the price you’re paying for their aid?”
“Is it any business of yours?”
“Considering he’s helped me out several times, yes, it is. You’re an alcoholic, Ninhursag, and I’m not sure Iain knows what that means or he can deal with your problem.”
Ninhursag’s eyes narrowed. “Fuck you, bitch. I drink three days out of the fucking year and for the rest of the time I don’t touch the fucking stuff. I warned you before I ever signed a single contract with you that I was unavailable during that time. The fact that you didn’t listen to me is not my fault.”
“Can I talk?”
Lucifer blinked in surprise at Iain’s acerbic tone. “Why wouldn’t you?”
“It might be the fact that you two are ignoring me standing here. First of all, I happen to be quite conversant with alcoholism. I have family members who are alkies. Ninhursag has issues with obsession and I don’t want to ever get on her revenge list, but she doesn’t appear to have an addictive personality. We have lots of alcohol at the house and she hasn’t had so much as a sip.” He folded his arms behind his back. “Second, Ninhursag, Lucifer has been very helpful to us and to me. She’s a friend of the family and it sounds like she is just trying to be a friend back, so please play nice with her.”
Lucifer’s eyebrows rose. “It sounds like?”
“Sometimes I get the impression you’d like a much more personal relationship with me.”
She blushed and shook her head. “Regardless of what I do or don’t want, it would never work out. You would not be willing to subordinate your will to mine nor would I be willing to subordinate my will to yours.”
“And there’s the real problem, Lucifer. You think of relationships as automatically being antagonistic, so all of yours are. I believe that we either find common ground that we can share or we just don’t stay together.” He took Ninhursag’s hand and raised the clasped hands together in front of him. “I know she’s not perfect and that I’m not either. She’s had three hundred years to develop habits, both good and bad. I haven’t had that long, but I’m a stubborn cuss which helps to make up for her head start. Some things we will work together on and some things we won’t. I’d be worried if she wanted to do everything I do. But I will never expect her to subordinate anything to anyone that she doesn’t want to.” He glanced up at the Elfqueen. “And that includes me.”
“So you think we could make a relationship work?”
“Unfortunately, I don’t, not the kind of relationship you deserve. You have a responsibility to the Sisterhood that takes up most of your day and comes first in your life. While I could normally live with that, right now I need to be focused on stopping Sanctuary. Besides, once the threat is over, we’ll be leaving this world for one where we should have a better chance at building a life where I won’t be at odds with the authorities all of the time.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“Well, right now we really need to get Ninhursag’s stuff, but if you want to know more about what we’re planning, please talk to Eve.”
“Thank you, Iain, I will.” She watched them as he and Ninhursag headed for one of the buildings.
The storage building was unguarded and filled with what looked like overlarge sports lockers set individually in rows. Ninhursag stopped in front of one of them, placed her hand on the front and closed her eyes. Colors rippled over the locker and grew brighter and brighter before abruptly stopping. The Elfqueen opened her eyes as she pulled the door open. “That’s a guard spell. It’s designed to trap anyone touching the door who doesn’t know how to circumvent the spell. They get magically bonded to the door until the storage unit’s owner or the base security mage can be summoned to release them.”
“So Lucifer can get into any of these that she wants?”
“I don’t know. She has never gone into mine.” Ninhursag shrugged. “Your Eve will be able to go through my possessions when she’s ready.” She grabbed the handles of the two duffel bags that filled the interior of the locker and pulled them out.
“She’s not supposed to do that anymore. Your privacy is your privacy and her privacy is her privacy.”
“That’s stupid.”
He smiled slightly. “That’s only true because you’re not used to it. We all carry team items in our gear which are the property of everyone, but your stuff is yours and if you don’t want someone seeing it, then they don’t have the right to go pawing through your possessions.”
“I’ll bet that drives Eve fucking insane.”
“It did for a while, but now she’s pretty good about defending personal rights. She’s still got a ways to go, but nobody’s perfect.”
“What about you?” Holding a duffel bag in each hand, she gently kicked the door of the locker shut.
“Me? Perfect?” He laughed. “I am about as far from perfection as you can get. I do try to get a little closer every day, but I’ve still got miles to go before I sleep. Millions of miles, in fact.”
“What makes you so imperfect?”
“I don’t accept Eve and the others as they are. I try to persuade them to my politics and other beliefs. When Eve ignored me on my wishes regarding personal privacy, I issued orders to get what I wanted instead of accepting it as what she wanted to do. In my own way, I am probably the most stubborn person here. I am going to destroy this ingrained harem concept.”
“Even if it kills them?” She grinned at him.
He snorted. “It won’t. They just don’t know what rights they’re supposed to have. When they do, they’ll fight tooth and nail to keep them. You didn’t reset your spell.”
“I’m going to trust your words and I’m not planning to have to come back here.” She headed for the door and he trailed behind her. “What are these rights?”
“The biggest one and the one from which all the others come from is the right to self determination. You and only you have the right to do what you want with yourself, and by extension, your property. I can’t change your biology, at least not yet, but within those restrictions I will let you be as free as you want to be.”
“What if I wanted a lover? A male lover?”
He hesitated. “I probably wouldn’t like it very much, but you’re right and it is your choice to make. If it did bother me and I could live with it, I’d try not to let you know, but we’d discuss it if it became too much of a problem.”
“And if I didn’t want to give him up?”
“If I couldn’t accept what you wanted, then I’d probably end our relationship so you could be with him.”
She stopped and swung around to face him. “I can tell when someone is lying to me and you’re not. Why does the fact that you are being accommodating to what I want somehow really make me want to smack you in the balls?”
“You’re alpha bonded to me and you want me to want you. Its part of the psychological makeup of every pokegirl and it was built into them by Sukebe. They need to be wanted by the person they’re bonded to. Neglect is the absolute worst thing you can do to almost any pokegirl. They’ll even take negative attention over being ignored. That’s why newly awakened feral pokegirls will put up with the same levels of abuse without tearing their new tamer into shreds that pokegirls raised in the system will because they’ve been inculcated since birth that they’re subhuman and can be treated however poorly their owner wants.”
“What about the celestials and groups like this one?” Ninhursag swung a bag to indicate the base.
“While they’re not really bonded to her, they are wanted by Lucifer and the other ruling elite, who function to take the place of human tamers. It’s how the Limbecs, the Queendoms, the Sanctuary Goths and the various pokegirl preserves function as well. They all look autonomous, but take a pokegirl from any of them and she rapidly finds herself needing someone, even above and beyond the desire to avoid going feral. Remember, being wanted is completely separate from being bonded and although pokegirls can’t bond with each other they can still fulfill the need of companionship with another pokegirl.” He frowned and looked around. “Do you want to drop those off in your room before we go looking for an acceptable tree?”
“That would be best.” She tossed him a duffel bag. “Here, you carry this for me.”
Iain chuckled as he caught it. “This is a pokepack, isn’t it?”
“That’s right. There’s no other way to carry four hundred and fifty kilograms of weapons and gear for only forty kilograms of actual weight.” She grinned. “This made the life of every mercenary and assassin so much easier.”
“Glad to help out.”
She blinked. “What do you mean by that?”
“I’ve got one of your bags. That makes me an assassin’s assistant.”
She chuckled and took his free hand with hers. “It’s a shame you didn’t say you were my apprentice or I could have you do my chores for me.”
“Yeah, that must just suck rocks. I’ll have to be more careful in the future.”
The terrain changed and they were just inside the gate. “You need to get your pass before we leave.”
“That’s right. I’ll be right back.” He hurried forward and got his pass from the sentries. “Ok, I’m back.”
She took his hand once more. “Now back to my new home.”
They appeared outside the house, which was silver in the moonlight. “So you can teleport from inside the base. I figured that would be the case since it makes sense for tactical deployment of assault teams against attackers.”
“You pay attention to things, don’t you?”
“It helps to keep me from picking up more scars.” He headed inside and turned towards her bedroom. “April is up, but everyone else is still asleep.”
“How do you know she’s up? I haven’t heard anything?”
“I am delta bonded to everyone except you and Vanessa.” The look he received wasn’t especially friendly and he shrugged. “You’ve been part of the family for,” he checked his mental clock, “fourteen hours. Our alpha bond is still stabilizing and you’re ready for delta?”
“I don’t know much about delta bonds. Is there a way to speed the process along?”
He shrugged. “I’ll look into it.”
“Please do.” She tossed her bag on her bed and motioned for him to do the same. “You know, your home doesn’t have any teleport blocks.”
“It’s a calculated risk, but we have agreed that strangers don’t come any closer than the bench outside. That should help to minimize any threat.”
“What about the construction team personnel? They’re Thorny but can you trust them not to drop by unannounced?
“Shit. I’ll mention it to Eve. Meet you outside in a few minutes.” He headed for Eve’s room and smiled at the sight of her and Dominique curled together in the darkness with the blankets piled at the foot of the bed. “Now that’s a picture suitable for framing,” he said softly.
Eve lifted her head slightly. “Not quite. We’d need you in the middle.” She yawned. “What’s the matter?”
“We need to consider a teleport and phase block for the house. Ninhursag reminded me that the construction girls were inside the house. So were the security teams, including people like Yvonne the Seraph.”
Dominique shifted and sat up. “If that bitch comes here, I’ll put her into Montsho’s restraints and ass fuck her with a strap-on and she knows it after our little talk.” She grinned at Eve’s shocked expression. “I heard from Scheherazade about the encounter at the barbecue and took steps without bothering to mention it to you. Still, our newbie has a valid point. I’ll put it at the top of the list, but after what we’ve learned about phased teleport keys and the nasty things that can be done with them, I think we’ll just build a covered area outside and use that as a teleport point with a full block over the house.” They’d determined that when deflecting a teleport it was possible to change the destination to wherever they wanted, including a kilometer underwater. The teleport itself wouldn’t kill the user, but once they arrived they’d be too busy trying not to drown or be crushed by the 160 atmospheres of pressure to focus their concentration enough to teleport to safety.
In other words, while the teleport wouldn’t kill them they would still die.
“That’ll be fine.” He bent down and kissed each of them quickly. “Anyone want to come along and keep me company while Ninhursag gets herself a bow?”
Dominique shrugged. “Sure.” She started to get out of bed only to stop when Eve grabbed her arm. “What?”
“He needs to go alone.” Her eyes met Iain’s and she nodded once. “Yes, I just know that.”
“Fuck. I’m getting my shotgun.”
“I’ll let April know she shouldn’t try to go with you either.” The Megami-sama gave him a grim smile. “And your shotgun and gear would be excellent things to have with you.”
“Double fuck me with razor blades.” Iain went to his room and picked up his shotgun and pokepack before heading back outside.
Ninhursag looked at him and her eyebrows went up at the sight of the pack. “I don’t think this will take that long.”
“You are going to be way too busy to guard me while you’re singing up your bow.”
“I don’t sing my bow, Iain, not anymore. Hard experience has taught us that singing elves draw tamers with guns and pokegirls, so we don’t sing unless we know we’re completely safe.” She blinked and then looked vaguely unhappy. “Fuck, you’re right. As much as I don’t want to, we should probably take someone with us to guard you.”
“This is something I’d like to keep as private as possible. If things get dangerous, I’ve got the Dragonesses on my arms in case the shotgun isn’t enough.”
The Elfqueen smiled suddenly and took his hand. “That’s right. Let’s go before someone decides to tag along.”
At their destination it was still night, just like at home, only it was much more humid and somewhere in the somewhere in the distance male frogs sounded off as they looked for mating partners. Iain looked around and frowned when he found the moon low on the eastern horizon. “We moved west. Where are we?”
“Cuba.”
“We’re in the Tropic League? I’ve never been there before.”
She shrugged. “I don’t give a shit what the humans call it. As a security measure to confuse eavesdroppers, the Sisterhood still uses the old place names. If you weren’t who you were, you’d be confused too, Iain.”
He caught the soft stress on his name and frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Kerrik would know what Cuba was, but would Iain?”
His eyes widened in the darkness. “You’ve got a good point. I think I’ll cultivate world history as a hobby in case of more mistakes.”
“You don’t have to be that general. Knowing about the founding of the leagues and the history of the Revenge War and the formation of the leagues should be good enough. That’s when all the name changes took place.”
Iain blinked. “I’ve never considered this, but what did the pokegirls call the Revenge War?”
“Sukebe named it,” she said quietly. “Mother said he called it his revenge. The name Revenge War got to the humans from captured pokegirls discussing Sukebe.”
“I should have realized that. I am officially a moron.”
“It’s official now? Does that mean you have to wear an idiot insignia?”
“I think I’ll just keep you around to keep me humble instead. So, where is the tree you want?”
“Oh, that. I want some seeds from a specific tree species and from that I’ll grow the perfect tree for my bow.”
“I hope you’re not that picky on everything.”
Her teeth flashed in the dim moonlight. “Of course I am. I picked you, didn’t I?”
“I guess I can’t complain then.”
She took his hand and headed off into the darkness. “How well can you see in this?”
“I see like it were daylight and in color.”
“I am beginning to understand why, although you can’t really do much with your magic, what you can do pisses Dominique off so much.”
“She said that?” He rubbed his head and sighed. “She can do so much more than I can, I don’t see why the crap I can do aggravates her like it does.”
“It’s the fact that there are some things you can do that she can’t. That’s what bothers her. She’ll feel the same way when she discovers I know spells that she probably doesn’t. You’ve got a Hild slayer on your hands.”
“What’s that?”
“You know about the rivalry about who is the best magic user between the two breeds, right? Hild slayers are a nickname for Archmages who want to know it all and don’t take any shit from a Hild or anyone else.”
Iain snorted. “Dominique could take any of the lesser Hilds with ease.”
“Lesser? Does that mean there are greater Hilds?”
“The real Hild is a legendary pokegirl who is supposed to be the most powerful spellcaster on the planet, which is, of course, nonsense. She created the Hild breed to sow confusion about her presence, even though nobody knew about her. To be honest, nobody really cared about her, either, so what she did was a complete waste of time. That’s pretty typical behavior for a legendary by the way.” He grinned. “Back where I came from I thought about pointing out just how easy it would be to kill Hild when she was introduced, and then I remembered it doesn’t matter. She’s obsessed with not being killed to the point where she doesn’t do anything except work to increase her power so she’s not a threat to anyone.”
“I’ve never heard of her, but I’m willing to play devil’s advocate. What if she decides you’re a threat?”
“She shouldn’t. I haven’t come anywhere near her or interfered with her plans. It’s one of the reasons I don’t go around spouting off all the classified or secret things I know, like where Typhonna is.” He shrugged. “But if she did decide to kill me, she’ll have to get in line and work for it. I will not go gentle into that good night.”
She frowned. “That sounds familiar.”
“It’s from a poem by a Welsh poet named Dylan Thomas. Considering the subject matter is fighting death, I’m not surprised that it’s still known.”
“Here we go.” Ninhursag dropped to her knees in front of a small tree about two meters tall. “These are really hard to find.”
“What is it?”
“It’s West Indian Mahogany, also known as swietenia mahagoni. The locals harvest it heavily for its hardwood.” Iain knelt next to her as she made an unhappy noise. “It’s not well.”
“Do we need to move it?”
“No, it’s not going to die; it’s got a fungal infection. I’ll fix that and then coax it into giving me some seeds.”
“Don’t they need to be pollinated before they’ll germinate?”
The Elfqueen pressed her cheek against the tree and closed her eyes. “Normally that would be true, but I can make a plant give me parthenogenic seeds. Normally I’d let it propagate like it should, but this is the wrong time of year for it to produce seeds. If it were necessary, I could grow trees from twigs taken from the main plant, but I’d prefer not to. Plants grown from seed are hardier.” Her eyes opened and she sat back on her heels and wrapped her hands around the trunk. “Ok, the tree is healed.” Several branches sprouted buds that turned into flowers and then became green woody looking pods several centimeters long that pointed towards the night sky. They turned a light brown as they ripened. Ninhursag began collecting the pods only to stop when Iain released a small sack from his pokepack and handed it to her. “Thanks.” When she was done she offered him the sack. “Hold this while I find a better place for the trees I’ll be growing.”
“You only need one, right?”
She nodded absently as she looked around. “That’s right, but I’ve got plenty of seeds and growing five or six of them won’t tire me out. When I’m cultivating, I like to leave a forest better than when I arrived.”
Iain thought about it for a moment as he followed her before giving a mental shrug and going back to alertly watching their surroundings, searching both with his eyes and his perception. Ninhursag wasn’t paying attention and he wasn’t in the mood for either one of them to get hurt if he could avoid it.
He was so intent on sentry duty that he jumped when she spoke. “This is nice. We’ll do it here. Bag.” She looked over her shoulder at him in irritation. “Give me the damned bag.”
“Yes, my queen.”
She blinked and an amused smile appeared on her face as he pulled the bag of pods out of the side pocket on the pokepack and handed it to her. “I like the way that sounds.”
“I’ll bet you do. You call me serf and there will be an instant rebellion. And although you don’t have a pokeball yet, I do still have Montsho’s restraints.”
Her smile grew as she shook out two pods and handed the bag back to him to restow. “I’ll keep that in mind. I’d make you my knight, but the Pennies soured me on that for a long, long time after they tried to add me to their little empire. Now I’ll be concentrating on what I’m doing, so no more joking.”
Iain clicked off the safety on his shotgun. “Go ahead.”
She held up her hand and the pods cracked open to reveal several seeds. Each was attached to a wing that allowed them to be dispersed on the wind when the pods opened on the tree. She planted one and it instantly sprouted and began growing at roughly four meters a minute as she ignored it to move on and plant the rest of them widely enough that their canopies wouldn’t touch when they were grown.
By the time she returned to the first tree, it was over thirty meters tall and its base was a meter in diameter. She patted it on the trunk. “I’m going to start, Iain, and this will take all of my concentration. Don’t distract me.”
“I’ll try not to shoot in random directions when I get bored,” he said dryly.
She grinned. “Cheeky bastard, aren’t you?” Then she turned back to the tree and placed her hands on the trunk. “Ok, this one is willing to help.” She stepped away from the tree and began loosening her armor. “This magic sometimes draws things, so keep a sharp eye out no matter how much you want to stare at my magnificence.” When he didn’t answer she glanced at him to find him studiously ignoring her. A tiny bit of tension appeared between her eyes. “Hey, you prick, don’t you even want to look?” He grinned without looking at her and she relaxed. “You’re an asshole.”
“I’d rather be your prick.” He looked her up and down deliberately as she shimmied out of her pants and she laughed.
“It’s a wonder you have any pokegirls.”
“I say that myself every time I look in the mirror. I have no idea what any of you see in me, but it probably means you all need to see a psychiatrist and get heavily medicated.”
She frowned slightly and then shook her head. “I’m getting started now.”
“I’m not looking.”
She put her hands on the tree and for a long moment nothing happened. Then bright amber lines traced out from her hands and over the surface of the mahogany tree even as identical lines began weaving their way across her body. Iain’s attention was drawn back to her as the lines changed and moved, forming elaborate patterns of animals and plants as they twisted until both hers and the tree’s patterns matched.
Ninhursag’s hands disappeared as she pushed them into the tree like she was phased. When she pulled them out, she was holding a large recurve bow in one hand and a quiver full of arrows in the other. The lines on both her and the tree faded as she staggered backwards. Iain caught her before she could fall and she smiled at him tiredly as he scooped her up. “You’re stronger than you look.”
“Not enough. If I’m going to be doing this regularly, I’ll have to go back to lifting weights again.” He staggered forward and dropped to his knees to carefully deposit her on the ground so that she was sitting with her back against the trunk of the mahogany.
She smiled again as he lifted the bow and quiver into her lap. “I’ll be ok in a few minutes.”
“We’re in no hurry.” Sudden screaming behind him rent the air and Iain whirled as he lurched upright, grabbed the slung shotgun and pulled it to the ready.
With his perception he’d seen the form appear out of nothingness. For an instant the scene made no sense to his brain and then everything snapped into focus. The Unicorn was the one screaming in fear and pain. Her hindquarters were slumped towards the ground because she’d been hamstrung by the Growlie tearing at her legs while two others had their teeth buried in her flanks and tore at her sides with their claws as they tried to pull her down. A fourth Growlie was on the Unicorn’s back and had her teeth clamped down on back of the Unicorn’s neck while her claws reached around to tear at the centaur’s human stomach.
To understand was to act and Iain’s first three round burst took the Growlie on top of the Unicorn in the face, just missing the head of the pokegirl she was trying to kill. Her skull sagged as the slugs punched her brains out of the back of her head in a spray over the back of the Unicorn and the Growlie’s three pack mates. The body slithered bonelessly off the Unicorn to the ground.
As soon as the shotgun roared, the remaining feral Growlies scattered into the woods, but with his perception Iain could see they weren’t fleeing. They were regrouping and taking stock of the situation before they attacked again.
Ninhursag shoved herself to her feet, her bow in her hands with an arrow nocked on the string. “I can hear them and they’re not running.” She glanced at him and he was shocked at the way exhaustion made her look haggard. “We should run before they return.”
He opened his mouth to agree when the Unicorn seemed to flicker like bad stop motion photography as she teleported, exiting next to Iain and, with a look of desperate terror on her face, bent down and wrapped her arms around him just as Ninhursag grabbed him with one hand from the other side and tried to pull him safely behind her. The Unicorn’s horn slammed into his forehead and his world swam.
Light exploded from his body to engulf all three of them in a sphere of energy that sheared through the inoffensive mahogany tree and burned the grass underneath them to ash.
The light faded away and Ninhursag let him go as the Growlies burst from the woods. Her arrow took the first one in the throat. The other two fled and kept on going until Iain couldn’t see them anymore.
Iain threw an empty pokeball at the dying Growlie and she disappeared into the containment unit without a struggle.
“Are you ok?” Ninhursag peered at him worriedly and he stared back at her. Her hair was now a shimmering metallic silver that matched the silver eyes staring out of her face.
“I am, but you’ve changed a bit.” He realized her bow was now ebony traced with silver leaves all over it. The quiver over her shoulder was the same way and he could see the arrows were black with silver fletching. “So has your bow and arrows.”
She looked at the bow in her hands and her eyes went wide. “What the fuck just happened?”
Something plucked at his back and Iain realized he’d forgotten about the Unicorn. He turned around and froze at what he saw. “Ninhursag, I’m sorry, but apparently I happened.”
The Unicorn had evolved. She was solid black with gold eyes and hair that matched her now cloven hooves and the tuft on the end of her leonine tail. Her centaur form was much taller than he was and she looked down at him curiously from less than a meter away. Apparently the process of evolving had healed all her wounds since she stood normally, her tail lashing slowly from side to side.
“Is that a Nightmare?” The soft whisper came from behind him. “I have never seen one with gold before. Their hair is always red.”
“That’s probably my fault.” Iain raised his hands slowly. “So, miss, are you ok?”
She looked at his hand and reached out to take it. She twisted it slowly and then let go, backing away and turning towards the Growlie he’d shot.
Iain winced suddenly as pain spiked through his head. He grunted and rubbed his temples. A thought struck him. He looked at Ninhursag and reached out experimentally with his mind. Can you hear me?
The Elfqueen had gone back to looking closely at her bow and didn’t look up. “Of course I can.”
He projected a feeling of desire at her and her head jerked up as her nipples visibly tightened. He noted with interest that her pubic hair was silver too and wondered what else about her had changed. “What did you just do?”
“I think you got your delta bond. I’ve done this once before and everybody except Vanessa ended up with a delta bond from the event.”
She swallowed audibly. “Mother fuck. What do we do now?”
“We take time and get used to what’s happened.” He blinked and shivered at the warm coppery taste that suddenly spilled over his tongue and down this throat. He turned around to watch as the Nightmare used an energy blade to slice another strip off the dead Growlie and cram it into her mouth. He closed his eyes for a second as the coppery taste returned and tried to decide if he was upset at the source of the taste or the fact that he liked it. He finally concluded he wasn’t upset at all and that really bothered him. “You know, I think she’s feral and also I think we’re delta bonded. It’s why she hasn’t attacked us or run, yet.”
“Feral? We need to capture her then.”
“How? If we attack her she’ll probably instinctively phase or teleport away and then we’ll have to chase her. I’m not looking forward to trying to track her with a delta bond.” He shrugged out of his pokepack and put his shotgun on top of it. “You’ve got sentry duty.”
Ninhursag nodded as he slowly walked towards the Nightmare. “I’ve got sentry duty. Be careful. I just got you.”
Iain tapped the Nightmare on the rump and she spun to face him. When she saw him, her energy blade dissipated and she smiled. He focused on her face and projected across the still forming delta bond what he wanted and what he wanted her to do. She took a step back as she blinked and looked thoughtfully at him. Suddenly she changed to her bipedal form, reached out and tore his shirt off his body.
***
“She’s not just feral, is she?” Ninhursag spoke quietly as Iain finished dressing. The Nightmare was watching the two of them as she ate a great grape that Iain had given her.
“It’s hard to tell since the centaur pokegirls don’t have different features if they’re born in the wilderness instead of in captivity but the fact that she’s not speaking an hour after being tamed is fairly strong evidence that she’s feralborne and hasn’t been tamed before.” Iain picked up the shreds of his shirt and then tossed them back down. “We’ll have to get a speech technical trainer for her.” He ground his teeth audibly. “Son of a bitch.”
“What’s the matter?”
“We’ve got that fucking quickie delta bond thing going, that’s what. She’s not going to be able to make an informed decision about whether or not she wants to join us on our stupid crusade. She’s stuck with me. She’ll just have to trust me to get it right and not get her killed.”
“That won’t matter to her. She’ll just be happy to be with you, Iain.” When he glared at her she smacked him on top of the head. “You poor dumb bastard, that’s what all of us are doing. With your ultra super cosmic powers you may be able to understand what kind of real threat Sanctuary is, but the rest of us are just foot soldiers who follow your lead.” Silver hair swirled as the Elfqueen jerked her head towards the Nightmare. “She just won’t be able to pretend she knows what’s going on like the rest of us do.” She went back to tugging at her pants. “I swear this fucking crotch has teeth. You had to make me taller when you did whatever it was, didn’t you?” She pointed at the legs of her pants. “Look at that. These damned things are at least a couple of centimeters too short and they’re more than a bit snug now. And my armor and my boots don’t fit anymore.” She glanced at him and he was relieved to see humor in her eyes. “I look like I beat up some Bimbo and stole her pants.”
“I’ll get you new clothes.”
“You can’t, Iain. Unless you know how to grow leaves together to form a laminate as flexible and tough as leather, you can’t replace my armor or my boots. As far as I know, I’m the only person who knows how to do it.”
“Fine, I’ll get you leaves so you can replace your fucking clothes. Shit.”
She chuckled. “It’s ok. I think you’ve given me a wonderful gift and I can’t wait to see if you did.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You’ll see,” she said mischievously. “But I think we need to go home since we’re all topless right now. The Growlies haven’t come back, but you two were making enough noise to let anything for miles around know you weren’t paying attention to your surroundings.”
Iain felt his face heat. “We weren’t that loud.”
“Yes you were.” Ninhursag took his hand. “Can you get her to understand that she should follow us when we teleport?”
“I think so.” He focused on the Nightmare and tried to increase the emotional loading that permeated communication across what was supposed to be an emotionally developed bond. We are going home and you need to come with us because it’s your home too. I want you to use our psychic bond to follow me.
She tilted her head sideways and popped the rest of the berry into her mouth before getting to her feet.
Ninhursag shrugged. “I guess we’ll find out.”
It was morning in Ireland and the sun was starting to peek over the eastern horizon when they exited. Iain looked around briefly and smiled in satisfaction when the Nightmare appeared next to him. “It worked.” He smiled at her and her gold eyes glittered as she smiled back.
Eve stepped slowly out of the doorway. “Welcome back.” She gave everyone an amused look. “I take it you all went someplace where shirts were forbidden?”
“I’ll explain later.”
“I can’t wait for this story. I see you picked up someone new. What’s her name?”
“She doesn’t appear to have one. Ninhursag and I think she’s been wild her whole life. She’s not showing any signs of understanding when we speak, either. Someone who speaks a language I don’t at least recognizes when I’m speaking and she doesn’t.”
“Feralborne Nightmares are exceedingly rare. As soon as there’s a rumor of one, tamers descend on the area in droves.”
“She wasn’t a Nightmare when we met her. She was a Unicorn and I evolved her by accident.”
“Feralborne Unicorns are almost as rare, Iain, but they are a lot harder for tamers to catch.” Eve smiled and reached out to touch his cheek. “I thought something like that might have happened since Ninhursag looks different too and I can feel your bonds with both of them.” She stiffened when the Nightmare came over and sniffed her hair curiously. When the golden haired pokegirl started chewing on it she grimaced, jerked away and spun, smacking the Nightmare between the breasts hard enough to make her stagger backwards. “No!”
The Nightmare spat out bits of blue and white hair and moved behind Iain to put him between her and Eve.
“That won’t protect her, but she still has to learn that.” April had quietly come outside. “Once again you’re lucky you have me, Iain.”
“I knew that,” he laughed. “But what wonderful thing have you done now?”
“I brought my collection of T2s with me, including one for verbal and nonverbal communication.” She held up a small oblong of metal with two lights and a button on it. “I caught your comment to Eve about our new sister not understanding speech and got it for you.”
Eve blinked. “How come I didn’t know about this?”
“I didn’t tell you. I get to keep my secrets, remember, and my property is my own to do with as I wish. It also means you still need one for the move.” She handed the T2 to Iain. “This is just a loan and I want it back when you’re done with it. Press it against her forehead and press the button. The lights will turn green when it’s done.”
“Thank you, April.” He turned around and motioned for the Nightmare to come to him. She did so without hesitating. He showed her the T2 and pressed it against his own forehead. In her human form the Nightmare was nearly as tall as Ninhursag and he reached up to place the device against her forehead. He smiled at her and pressed the button on the T2. Both lights lit up red and then one at a time turned green before blinking out. He pulled the T2 away and looked into the Nightmare’s golden eyes. “Do you understand me?”
She stared back for several seconds and then slowly nodded.
April had moved up next to him and spoke quietly. “It’ll be several hours before she can actually speak. It’s pretty basic, but will get her started. When Eve told us over the links about her, it was noted she doesn’t have a name. I’d like to suggest Zareen for her. It means golden one. I knew a Demon-Goddess by that name and she had hair this exact hue.”
“That works as well as anything I’ve been able to think of. Thanks.” He poked himself in the chest. “Iain.” He touched the Duelist. “April.” Then he poked the Nightmare between her breasts. “Zareen.” He got a feeling of understanding and acceptance from the delta bond. “She’s Zareen.”
April took the T2 and slipped it into her pocket. “She’s got a lot to learn if she’s newly tamed. It’ll be best to keep her outside until we can explain things like a toilet to her.” Her voice turned wry. “I’ll leave that to my maharani since its part of her job, and I’ll go put together something for breakfast for everyone.”
Behind her, Eve glared at the Duelist’s back.
Iain sighed softly. “Later I’ll see if I can get you two to kiss and make up. Where’s Dominique?”
“She’s in her lab. She’ll be up later.”
“Ok, but I want her and Vanessa to meet Zareen and see the changes in Ninhursag after breakfast. Eve, you and I will start trying to teach her about all the little things she needs to know about being civilized. It’ll be fun to see what we take for granted and forget.”
“Iain, I’ll need twenty minutes of your time after breakfast.” When he blinked April gave him a sweet smile. “You haven’t been shaved today.”
He nodded. “That’s right. We’ll take care of it then.”
***
He glanced up when the shadow blocked his sunlight. “Thanks to your errands I didn’t get much sleep last night, so I really hope you’re not going to harass me right now about conditioning training.”
Ninhursag shook her head. She was wearing a comfortable thigh length shift that left her long, muscular legs bare. They were covered with a fine down of silver hair that glittered in the sun. Her quiver was slung over her shoulder and her bow hung from the quiver. “You were faster than I was with your shotgun last night and I learned a valuable lesson. I have no comments to make on your abilities until I see you training with everyone else.” She smirked. “Only then will I assess your weaknesses and start harping on them until we can address them together.”
Iain made a face. “I can’t wait. So, if you’re not here to nag, what is it?”
“I want to see about this gift I think you gave me and I only thought it fair you be present so you’ll know what you did.”
“I haven’t given you any gifts. I don’t suppose you could say that in a way that makes sense, could you?”
She reached for his hand. “I didn’t think you’d realized what you’d done, so you’ll have to see to understand.”
He pulled his hand back. “Where are we going?”
“Just over to a blank patch of ground that Vanessa hasn’t claimed yet.”
He sent his book away and took her hand. “Don’t we have to go all the way to Tralee for that?”
The Elfqueen laughed as she pulled him to his feet. “She’s not that bad, but she has already approached me about helping her with making the gardens grow faster and stay healthier. Should I do it?”
“It’s really your choice, but I would appreciate it if you did. Right now the place looks like a construction site and some plants would be nice to break that up.” He picked up his shotgun and cradled it. This close to the house he didn’t bother with the tactical sling.
She looked thoughtful for a moment. “I’ll make a deal with you. I’ll help Vanessa with her garden plots if you’ll help me with some others.”
“What can I do?”
“You can help with the layout and I also want to know what plants you like so I can make some gardens we can enjoy. You’re my lover, so I want to spend time in the garden with you and it’s easier to do that if I don’t put in something you’re allergic to or can’t stand.”
Iain smiled broadly. “That’s very considerate. Deal.”
Ninhursag led him away from the house. “If my gift is anything like I think it is, it’ll be better if we do this away from the house.”
“I really don’t know about this gift you keep hinting I gave you. Am I missing something or are you being deliberately cryptic?”
“Can’t it be both?” She flashed a grin and pointed. “How about over there?” They’d wandered west nearly a kilometer from the house and were outside the boundaries of the ruins of Castlegregory. She’d stopped in front of a fairly flat patch of grassy ground about a hundred feet across that looked like it was once pastureland.
“I don’t have any plans for here and I don’t know of anyone else having some. It’s yours.”
She gave him an oddly formal bow. “Thank you, Iain. This place feels healthy and I can do a lot here.” She slipped the quiver off her shoulder and pulled the shift over her head. It got dropped on the ground next to the quiver. She stretched. “Much better.”
“I distinctly remember Elfqueens not being nudists.”
“Does my nudity bother you?”
“Bother me? No, it’s distracting. You’re very beautiful and I can’t focus on what I’m doing when you’re nude around me.”
Her face lit up with pleasure. “Good. Do you like my new hair and eyes better than my old ones?”
“I think your hair before was pretty, but now it’s,” he frowned. “I’m not sure how to put this.”
“I’m more magnificent? Gorgeous? You can’t take your eyes off of me?”
“That’s all true,” he admitted wryly, “but not what I was looking to say.”
“Well, when you figure it out, you let me know.” She picked up the quiver and headed for the center of the flat area. “Come with me, Iain, or would you rather stand there and stare at my ass?” When he didn’t move she stopped and turned around to look at him. “What?”
“I’m thinking about it.”
She laughed. “Get over here.” When he joined her she handed him her bow. “Hold this for me.” She watched him and approval filled her eyes as he carefully shifted the weapon to his side. “So you do know how much of an honor it is to be allowed to touch a living bow that’s not yours. I’d wondered if you understood.”
“I created the living bow for a story. I may know more about them than any other human,” he glanced at her, “and many elves.”
“Eve’s right.” She shrugged when he gave her a questioning look. “When you talk like that it’s creepy.”
“Sorry. I still haven’t decided if we created the portions of this world that we explored or if we just documented what we somehow saw across the universes. I’m frightened at the idea that I may know a way to find out, too.”
“How?”
“It’s pretty simple. Several leagues were never documented and others were done very vaguely. All I have to do is travel there and see if it’s unfinished. If it is, we’re the nascent gods that Micah mentioned since only the leagues that were created really exist. I keep picturing this place where it’s all nothingness like in the first part of Genesis. It’s like an old episode of a video program called the Twilight Zone where there are people in the minute ahead of everybody else who make everything for when we get there. If you can’t find something and later you come back and it’s where you thought it should be, it’s because when they made the minute in which you couldn’t find it their quality control failed and they forgot to put the item where it belonged. Some regular people ended up in the advanced minute and when they wandered out of the area where they were going to be in the following minute, they found that existence for them ended as soon as it got out of their line of sight. It could be that this universe is like that for us,”
“That’s terrifying. In that sort of situation, what happens to us?”
“One idea is that you don’t exist until we give you life and once you leave our view, you cease to be. When you would return, you’d be recreated just out of our sight and with memories that explained your absence. I suppose if that’s true, by traveling to a league that hasn’t been developed, I would bring life to it, but I’m scared to test the concept. What if I’m creating the universe around me as far as I can perceive, but beyond that is nothing and when I leave it ends?”
Ninhursag pulled her silver hair around and looked at the lock she held for several seconds before switching her gaze to him. “You know, how about we don’t find a way to test that. In fact, Iain, how about we change the subject entirely?”
“Ok. We were talking about some gift?”
She nodded. “That’s right.” She dropped to her knees and pulled her quiver around to peer into it. “That’s good. There are shoots in the bottom, just as there should be. You are aware that the arrows and quiver are as alive as the bow and that the arrows grow from the bottom of the quiver.”
“Yes.”
“Do also know that if an arrow is removed from the quiver and stuck in the ground within a few minutes after being removed it will take root if the ground is fertile? The same thing can be done with the bow itself, if desired.”
Iain nodded. “Yeah.”
“I made this bow and quiver from the mahogany tree I grew.” She pulled a black arrow from the quiver. Its silver fletching gleamed like liquid metal. “Then you did what you did and changed me and the Unicorn.”
“Her name is Zareen. You need to start using it.”
She flashed him a smile. “True. However, when you changed things, you also changed my bow, quiver and arrows.” She held the arrow up as if for inspection. “What kind of tree is this, my Iain, which would produce this arrow?”
He blinked. “I have no idea.”
She looked over her shoulder at him. “If it is alive, then it is a plant and I can grow it and we can find out what tree you created just for me.”
Iain leaned the shotgun against his side and looked at the bow in his hands. “I created something alive,” he whispered. “This could be a horrible mistake, Ninhursag. I probably screwed up and the tree grows it will try to eat us. We’ll have to name it Audrey II, if we survive the initial attacks.”
“If it does, it is still something that you made for me and I’ll grow them around the house to control ferals. However, I don’t think you did anything that drastic. I have felt the presence of predatory plant pokegirls and this does not feel that way.” She placed the point of the arrow against the ground and drove it into the soil until the arrowhead was completely buried. She leaned back on her heels and closed her eyes. “Here goes.”
For what seemed like an eternity to Iain, nothing happened. Then the arrow began growing, becoming a sapling two meters tall with black wood so dark it drank the light and silver elliptical leaves. Ninhursag opened her eyes and reached out to touch the trunk. “Iain, it’s beautiful. I’ve never seen or heard of anything like it and you made it for me.” She turned to look at him. “Thank you for this.”
“While I still think it was an accident, it’s yours.” He smiled slightly. “Of course, now you have to name it.”
“That’s easy. Long before the Greeks came into existence and took it into their alphabet, Ninhursag’s symbol was the omega. This tree is now my symbol. It is the omega tree.” She gave him an almost defiant look.
“Fine with me. I’ll try not to make fun of it.” He watched the tension drain out of her. “So, will it live up to its name?” A blink was her only response and he smiled. “You aren’t aware that in Greek, omega means great? After seeing Kellogg’s Sugar Frosted Flakes commercials it used to make me laugh when I read the phrase in the Bible. “God is the beginning and he’s grreeeeaaattt!” Iain’s voice rose to yell the last word.
“It sounds like there’s a joke in there somewhere.”
He grinned. “Probably.”
She smiled back. “Bastard.”
“Horny slut. See how big your great tree gets.”
Ninhursag nodded and turned back to the sapling. It began growing rapidly, the trunk thickening as the crown reached for the sky. Iain blinked as he heard muffled explosions as subterranean rocks surrendered to invading roots and the ground shook slightly as the taproot headed down in search of water. In minutes the tree towered a hundred meters into the air and the trunk was a good ten meters around. The foliage spread all around them and spread shade over more than an acre. Light reflected from the leaves danced around them as the foliage fluttered in the breeze.
The Elfqueen opened her eyes. “It’s at a comfortable height now. I wouldn’t want to overdo it.”
Iain chuckled. “Perish the thought. We wouldn’t want it to draw unnecessary attention, now would we? Nobody’s going to notice a three hundred foot tall black tree with silver leaves, but a hundred and ten meters would have just been too much.”
“You’re making fun of my tree,” she said flatly. “You said you’d try not to do that.”
He blinked. “You’re absolutely right. I apologize to both you and the tree.” He sighed. “Eve’s seen it and they’re on the way. You’ll have to explain what’s going on to them.”
Ninhursag grinned. “I’ll stay nude. That always seems to throw her off her stride.” She looked at him. “She’ll also probably want me to get rid of it. What’s your call?”
He shrugged. “It’s your tree. You won’t be able to plant much around here since it blots out the sun, but it’s your garden plot and you can do whatever you want.”
She leaned back against the trunk and smiled gleefully. “Then it stays.”
***
Iain Grey - Tradesman
Eve - Megami-sama (maharani)
Dominique - Blessed Archmage
April - Duelist
Ninhursag - Elfqueen
Zareen - Nightmare
Dragonesses
Eirian - Silver
Skye - Blue
Emerald - Green
Aurum - Gold
Beryl - Red