Into the Fire
Thirty Two
It’s all about control, Iain thought to himself. As long as I maintain control, I am safe. More importantly, those I care about are safe.
Scheherazade’s shadowy form stood next to him as he looked out on the plain where the prison fortress stood. What about the others?
If I don’t care about them, I don’t care about them, he replied/thought. Fuck them.
Her ears flicked and she shook her tail out violently. If compassion were completely irrelevant evolution would have removed it from humanity. It can protect you from some of the negative effects of what you are going to do. You do not need to become the abyss.
He reached up and scratched her throat, smiling when she leaned into the caress. You shouldn’t know how to quote Nietzsche at me, but then you are a figment of my imagination. However, I’ll give you one of his other quotes back: he who has a why to live can bear almost any how. If I’d known how to do this earlier, maybe you and the others wouldn’t be dead.
She shrugged. And maybe all of us would be dead because of it. Your loss is becoming a gain as you add more harem members. Ninhursag and Zareen are good additions or at least they will be once Eve has broken them to the harness. Her jaws opened and she lolled her tongue in a red laugh at him. And that is something which she will do soon enough. You’re kibitzing. Do it. She faded away into nothingness.
I miss you. He flickered and appeared near the fortress. A new structure stood near the outer wall. It was wellhead three meters in diameter that was piped to a tremendous set of multistage piston pumps that fed a fractional distilling column. A pipe on the outlet of the column stopped at a multistage compressor. The discharge of the compressor led into a solid looking pressure vessel. On the far side of the vessel a short run of pipe ended at a solenoid operated needle valve that rested in a stand over a steel table with a sink in the center. A control panel sat next to the table and a strand of cable ran from it around the pressure vessel and back to the pumps. A second wire ran to the solenoid. It’s a good thing that here logic doesn’t have any meaning except what I give it.
He walked over to the control panel and pressed the start button. The pumps roared to life. For several minutes he stood and watched as they ran. Then the compressor started. The pressure vessel began to glow as compression heated the contents and a digital gauge on the control panel slowly showed rising pressure. When the vessel was cherry red the pumps and compressor stopped. Iain checked the gauge and when he found the numbers had been replaced by the word “Unimaginable”, he smiled slightly.
He placed a beaker under the valve and pressed another button on the panel. The solenoid valve opened and a drop of shimmering liquid appeared and fell into the beaker. It hissed like water dropped into a hot skillet and bounced around as it began to evaporate. Iain double checked everything before pressing a third switch on the panel. A green button reading AUTO lit up just above the switch. Then he cautiously reached out and touched his fingertip to the quickly shrinking drop. It vanished inside him in a burst of technicolored light that spread through his body. He shuddered and disappeared, leaving behind the equipment standing ready for when he needed it again.
***
Eirian came out of the woods and stopped in front of Iain. “We are ready, but I will need Aurum and Skye. Are you ready yet?”
He nodded and sent his tome back to being the tattoo it became when he wasn’t using it. He’d discovered it didn’t have to be on his arm and now it rested on his upper back. “Ok. I did what needed to be done.” He held out his arms and the two Dragonesses came off to stand next to the silver one. “It’s funny,” he said almost diffidently as he rose to his feet. “My arms don’t look right without you there anymore.”
Aurum’s head cocked. “That is good to hear, my lord. You realize that we belong with you.”
“I’ve known that for a long time, Aurum.” He reached out with his mind. Eve, we’re going now.
He felt the faint feeling of surprise overlain by dread in her response. Already? I thought/hoped they still needed more time to prepare. The surprise faded as fear for him replaced it, but it was all overshadowed by a surge of determination and the faint heat of anger that this was even necessary. We will be ready. Be careful, my love.
He nodded unconsciously. I will. Then he included the others in the communication, letting them feel his affection/love for each. I’m going with Eirian now. I’ll be back as soon as I can. He took Eirian’s hand. “Let’s go.”
All four figures vanished.
Ninhursag frowned when Eve used the crack from a lightning bolt to get everyone’s attention. “Training is over. April, cycle everyone through healing. If something happens, I want us all on standby to get to him immediately. That means until he gets back meals are light, there’s no drinking and no more than two people are asleep at any time.”
The Elfqueen slung her bow over her shoulder. “It’s not going to be that bad, Eve. He’s just going to learn to master one of his powers. That’s what pokegirls do and he needs to do it too.”
She was shocked at the flash of naked fury in the Megami-sama’s eyes. “You weren’t here when he first used it, Ninhursag, and you don’t know what he’s trying to do. This isn’t a good thing and Iain should not have to ever learn to consciously do this.”
“What is he going to do?”
Dominique put her hand over Eve’s mouth as the Megami-sama started to snap something. “Don’t mind her, she’s scared. What’s Iain going to do? He’s just gone off to learn to be the monster he’s always been afraid he’ll become. In the short term it may be the solution to all of our problems, but in the long term it may destroy him.” She sighed as Eve pulled free. “Then there’s the last time Iain went off by himself he got kidnapped and had a whole bunch of elective surgery performed on him.”
“Then why is he going without us?”
“He’s only taking the Dragonesses because in theory he can’t accidentally kill them since they’re already dead. That’s not true with us.”
“It’s that fucking bad?”
April looked up from where she was setting up a PHU. “No, it’s worse.”
***
Holding Eirian’s hand, Iain took a step forward and the bench, house and surrounding lands seemed to rotate sideways and vanish only to reappear around him. On the bench sat a short haired woman wearing a Grateful Dead T-shirt and shorts and studying a magical tome. She looked up and eyes the same color as his widened in shock as she stared into his face. Smoke poured from her right shin above her sock and became a skeletal Dragoness wrapped in mummified looking tan hide that moved to stand between him and her. As the woman lunged for a glittering crystal spear that leaned against the end of the bench, Iain stepped forward and the scene changed again.
Lava glowed in all directions and the heat was so oppressive that it was like a blow to the face and made him gasp as he breathed in. Iain looked out over a sea of glowing red and realized he stood on the only solid ground he could see and that his next step would lead him into the lava. In the distances the lava spread in a wave as something dark began to surface and turn to face him. Molten rock sprayed as it lunged towards him and he stepped forward once more.
He stood in a clearing, his chest heaving as he sucked in the cool air. Something touched him on the shoulder and Iain reacted instantly, spinning and striking in one smooth motion that would have astonished Eve since she’d been trying to get him to do something similar and failing for nearly three months. Pain shot up his arm as he punched Beryl in the chest.
The Dragoness didn’t visibly react to the blow as he swore and cradled his broken hand. “We have arrived.”
“Fuck, does traveling like that ever get any easier?”
“It is not difficult for us.” Eirian bent down to look him directly in the face. “You and your harem are the first life to travel the paths we walk.”
“I thought I saw an alternate of myself in one place.” He shivered at the memory and deliberately flexed his damaged hand to give him the pain to focus on instead.
“That is possible but unlikely.” Emerald stalked around him slowly, watching him as she circled his body. “Still, each of us experiences different things each time we travel and none of us experience the same thing even when we travel together.”
“Have the things you’ve seen ever interacted with you?”
Eirian cocked her head. “The fact that you ask that question means you already know the answer.”
“Shit. There has got to be a better way.”
Emerald poked him in the middle of the back, knocking him forward. “There is not. We are here now. We have work to do. Complaining about how you got here is irrelevant and wastes time.”
Iain turned to face her, his face still. He could feel the prickles in his hand as the bone began to slowly mend. “Lead on, then.”
The green Dragoness cocked her head. “You are angry with me.”
“I have a drop of the finely distilled essence of the emotions I keep bottled up coursing through me for this first test. Right now I’m angry at everything.” He shivered again. “For an instant I considered staying and killing the other me. Maybe there, Scheherazade isn’t dead.”
“What stopped you?”
“First, her Scheherazade wouldn’t be the one I loved, but the truth is that my responsibilities to everybody here are what made me take that next step.” He growled loudly. “Let’s get this shit done.”
Emerald growled back. “You are learning to use a new ability as a weapon. You will either master it or it will master you. Remember that.”
Iain didn’t back down. “Do your job and I’ll do mine.”
Eirian watched the green turn and walk away. Beryl silently followed her. “Emerald awakens. She was an instructor in the queen’s service and taught the children to be strong and how to fight.”
“Was she a morning person while she was alive?”
The silver Dragoness cocked her head. “Not particularly, why?”
“She’s been asleep for centuries, so I guess a bit of grumpiness is to be expected.”
Eirian laughed, making him jump. For an instant she looked shocked and then her face smoothed over again. “Perhaps.”
“You are starting to feel more emotions? She’s grumpy and you’re able to feel humor.”
“That may not be something that should be admired. We are very powerful and if we were to start feeling rage, either from ourselves or from you, it would be fatal for anyone we decided deserved that rage.”
Iain shook his head. “You were never ravening beasts, Eirian, and the fact that you are now undead doesn’t change that. You are free willed, insomuch in regards to the limits of the bond I have over you, and you decide if you will lose control or not.”
Her lips curved upwards slightly. “I return that argument to you, my lord. Your fears that what you do today will make you a ravening beast that you created are groundless as long as you decide you will not become that beast.”
Iain stared at her in surprise and a grudging smile slowly appeared. “Did you maneuver this conversation around just so you could say that?”
“My lord, why would I do that?” There was a distinctly teasing tone in her voice.
“I didn’t give you the latitude to lie to me, did I?”
She shook her head. “No, you did not. But you did allow us to become who we were before he took and murdered us. Will you take that back?”
“No, I won’t. You are free to be who you are.”
“We need to go this way, my lord.” She turned and followed the path Emerald had left on.
Iain followed. “You don’t have to call me that.”
“We choose to. It is our title for you and we wish to use it since living pokegirls will call you master if they call you anything. My lord is reserved for us to use.”
“That sounds like I shouldn’t let any living pokegirls call me that.”
“If you don’t like them and want them dead, go right ahead and allow it.” She was quiet until they approached a clearing. “You are recruiting new harem members to replace your losses in the living. Have you thought about recruiting someone to replace Sable?”
“Sable, like the others, is irreplaceable. Even if I wanted to add to my dead harem, I have no idea where to begin in creating another lich.”
“We know how the process is performed and our killer left that laboratory ready in case he wanted to make more of us.”
“You know how to make more liches? Fuck.”
“My lord, I was the second one he made after Aurum. She and I helped with his work on the others, and although mindless at the time, we remember how the process is carried out. The Order has a young Dragoness who shows much promise. I could have her ready for the process in just a few weeks once we acquire her. All I need is for you to give the word. The taking would be untraceable.”
Iain halted. “Eirian, stop and look at me.” When she did, he shook his head firmly. “No. You’re talking about kidnapping someone and turning her into a lich. That would make me her killer and no better than Eoghan.”
Her tail swung from side to side sinuously. “I know. Does that mean you will not add to your dead harem but you will to your living?”
“I try to offer my ladies the opportunity to join me. For the most part I have been successful at that. After we’ve murdered and turned someone into undead is a bit late for them to have that choice. I suppose we could look for someone who would volunteer, but anyone who would willingly take that step would have reasons of her own for doing so and they might not mesh with ours.”
“If she lies to become one of us, would it then not be appropriate to lie to her and not let her know that her will becomes automatically subordinate to yours, my lord?”
“That’s a deceptively easy argument to make, Eirian. I still have to look in the mirror afterwards and not throw up at what I see there.”
“May we search for potential additions, my lord, if we are honest with them?”
“You won’t find anyone willing to take that step under those conditions, but sure.”
“What about recruiting from amongst our enemies, my lord?”
He blinked. “What do you mean?”
“If we were to capture a pokegirl that would normally be put to death, could we, your dead harem, claim her for our own? Then her death would be more than the end of a life that was used wastefully.”
Iain looked uneasy. “That sounds a lot like some kind of bizarre justification.”
Eirian summoned her wings and spread them wide as she raised her head to her full height and stared down at him. “I am a Dragoness and I am dead. You have five dead Dragonesses who serve you, my lord, and who you have ordered to prepare to go with you to this new world which is much like this one.” Her wings folded along with her arms. “This new world has a past identical to the one we live on now. We five along with you are not strong enough to defeat Eoghan and Germanicus and will not be for at least a century.”
“So?”
“This world will have its own Eoghan, Germanicus and Ygerna. We will not be able to hide our unlife from Eoghan for long and he will come to destroy us.”
Iain went white as the blood drained from his face. “Blood and darkness,” he whispered softly.
“I thought you’d realized this, my lord, or I would have brought it up sooner. He will not come immediately, but within a decade or two he will send Germanicus to scout our energy. When he realizes there are five lesser liches and your magic, he will come for all of us within twenty years.”
“I didn’t think about this.” Iain’s head reeled as he considered the implications. “How many?”
“Properly chosen and trained, ten to twelve should prove sufficient. We estimate only ten to twenty percent losses with those numbers and those will most likely be among the recruits.”
“That’s a lot of Dragonesses.”
“It is very unlikely that they will all be of my breed, my lord. Eoghan and Ygerna both chose nothing but Dragonesses because they are superstitious and, real or not, the mythical dragons they remember were very formidable. I would recommend a variety of breeds, in any case, for flexibility if nothing else.”
“I’ll have to think about this. I’m not sure I could live with it happening, even to my enemies.”
“I understand, my lord. Your best option in that light would be to leave your dead harem on this world. He who killed us will not come for what he will see as just another human mage until it is too late for him to defeat you.” She paused. “However, it is likely that Ygerna will sense your presence and investigate, which means that Eoghan will learn of your existence at that point.”
Iain’s eyes narrowed. “That is not a viable option at all. I won’t abandon you just because it would be expedient.”
Eirian’s head bobbed in acceptance. “I am pleased to hear that, my lord, and I shall drop the topic for now. We should proceed on to the experiment site.” She turned and headed off again, a troubled Iain following in her wake.
The clearing wasn’t a natural one and in it were the ruins of a small town. “Where are we?”
“This is a town that’s located in an uninhabited portion of the Capital League. It did not survive the Red Plague and was far enough from civilization that it has never been resettled.”
He blinked. “Wow. I didn’t realize you ladies were so well traveled.”
“Our killer sent us all over the world for things he desired. Here, about a century after our killer made me dead, a mage who had something our killer wanted tried to hide from us. He failed.”
He looked around. “I wonder if we’re near wherever Micah is. I guess it doesn’t matter. He could be ten kilometers from here and we’d never know it.”
“There are no humans within twenty five kilometers of this place. We have been systematically searching the region while we prepared.”
“Oh.”
“Prepare yourself.”
Iain ran through the memories of what had happened with Mhodvitnar and focused his will. “I’m ready.”
Eirian nodded. “Aurum.”
The gold dragoness came up, holding a small sack. She opened it just enough to stick her hand inside and pulled out a writhing rat by the neck. She turned and held the rodent out towards Iain.
He gathered up the feelings inside him and added some magic as he reached out towards the rat. As his fingertip touched it, he forced what he’d collected into its body. The rat went berserk, squalling in fury as it thrashed.
Iain watched it as the timer in his head counted off a minute. Eirian looked at him and he nodded. “I know.”
Somewhere in the mental landscape that was his mind, the solenoid valve opened and let two drops of concentrated emotions escape to dissipate.
Iain gathered up the new emotions and reached out to touch the rat again. It screamed louder and ten seconds later went limp as its heart gave out. Without a word, Aurum turned and left, only to be replaced by Emerald, who also carried a small bag. She pulled out another rat.
The solenoid valve opened and let three drops out.
Iain touched the new rat and its whole body went taut. It trembled for a few seconds and died.
Eirian spoke. “That appears to be an adequate dose for rats. Up or repeat? We have several more rats.”
Iain wanted to make sure. “That took three units. Repeat.” This next rat died from the same dose and he nodded. “Let’s go up now.”
Skye brought him a rabbit as Iain prepared himself to see how much distilled emotion it took to kill this creature. It took several rabbits before he was satisfied he knew how many units it took to kill one of them immediately. As each died, one of the Dragonesses field dressed it and put it aside to take back to the house.
From rabbits he progressed to kattle, and here he stayed for a while until he was satisfied that he could kill one instantly. The dead kattle were field dressed just like the rabbits were and put with them.
At that point the Dragonesses brought him one more kattle, this one with a bag containing two rabbits on its back. Iain backed up and Eirian cocked her head. “What is it?”
“I’ll need to do this eventually.” From ten feet away he focused his will and forced the emotions he’d collected into the kattle. It was frighteningly easy and the animal died just as fast as the last one had.
Beryl poked the bag. “The rabbits are alive. Do we proceed to the next step?”
Iain nodded. “Yes.” Another kattle was brought up and a bag with two new rabbits put on its back. Iain collected double the emotions needed to kill the kattle and forced them into the hapless beast. It died instantly and Iain could feel a surge in the air around the kattle as it did so. Beryl poked the new bag and then opened it. “The rabbits are dead,” she announced. “At close proximity there is transfer.”
“Shit.” Iain rubbed his eyes with his hands and looked up just as Emerald put a bound Hamtit down in front of him. He blinked and paled. “What is this?”
Eirian gave him a flat look. “The next progression.”
“I don’t know if I can do this.”
“She is feral. As you have theorized and proven, the number of units required has increased as the animal’s size increased. Also as you have theorized and also proven, there is transfer if excess units are employed. What is still not known is whether the number of units increases solely as a function of body size or if it has to do with the increase in the size of the subject’s brain since it is the primary target for this effect. Since your goal is to be able to use this offensively and defensively against sentient beings, this is the logical progression for the test since their brain is substantially larger than any other creature’s. Because we have proven the existence of transfer, it is likely that experimentation in combat could kill more than your target and it is certain that your living harem will be in the vicinity of any fighting that you are involved in.”
He swallowed hard. “How many do I have to kill?” His voice was almost inaudible.
“We all know that you will kill as many as it takes, my lord. The safety of the members of your living harem demands it. Fortunately we captured several ferals while securing the area and can get more if necessary.”
***
Eve was sitting on the bench when Iain and Aurum shimmered into existence nearby. “My lord, we will finish dressing the meat and bring it to the house before it can spoil.”
“Thank you, Aurum.” The gold Dragoness let him go and shimmered into nonexistence as he sighed and looked around. “Hi, Eve.”
She looked into his eyes and blanched. They were haunted in a way that she hadn’t seen since the Revenge war when the celestials she’d been working with had killed their first humans and realized what Sukebe’s orders would cost them. Some had suicided rather than pay that price twice. “What happened?”
“I’ll be ok.” He sat down next to her and leaned against her side. “But I’d like to ask that the mirrors in the master bathroom be taken down. It’ll just be for a little while and since April is shaving me I don’t really need them.”
“It’ll be taken care of before bedtime today. Can I ask why?”
“Because I’ll be bothered if I looked into them and saw that what happened today changed me physically but I’ll be really upset if I saw that it didn’t. What I did should leave its mark on a man.”
“It was that bad? I know what you went to do, Iain.”
He merely nodded. “The Dragonesses took the test to its logical conclusion.” His mouth hardened. “I took the test to its logical conclusion. No one forced me to.”
Her eyes widened. “Oh. We hadn’t planned for that. What did they use?”
“Ferals. I’m not ready to talk about it more than that. All I can do right now is take solace in the fact that it needed to be done.”
“Oh, Iain.” She wrapped him up in her arms. “I’ll ask everyone that they respect the fact that you’ll talk when and if you’re ready.”
“Thank you. I really appreciate that.”
***
Iain shifted his weight on Zareen’s back and the Nightmare reached behind her waist and slapped him on the thigh to remind him not to squirm. “Sorry.” She ignored his response and summoned her energy blade as she trotted forward and into the trees.
He’d already learned that the T2 had worked perfectly and that the Nightmare could talk, but she seldom did. It didn’t bother him, but Eve liked feedback and the silence was starting to irritate her.
This training exercise was part of a series where Zareen was learning to protect Iain in battle, but then she’d agreed to become one of his guardians. The idea of protecting anything except a pokekit was foreign to her, and so a program had been hurriedly put together to start inculcating her into the mindset required which would allow her to risk harm in order to protect her tamer.
While not cowardly, and a fierce combatant when required, her first inclination was to avoid a fighting situation whenever possible. She was feralborne and had spent her whole life without the benefit of the healing magic of anyone else, so her philosophy was that any situation where she could be badly injured was a situation to steer clear of. This had led her to decide that there were few battles really worth fighting. In her mind there was always food available somewhere else and shelter wasn’t important to someone who had never lived in a house or cave. And, as a pokegirl, she didn’t need anyone else to reproduce so there was no urge to compete for a mate.
She wasn’t stupid, however, and could easily conceive of planning to assault someone in order to neutralize their threat to her or her herd’s survival before any opponent was in a position to do the same to them. Since this handily described the situation between them and Sanctuary’s forces, she was willing to learn to work with the rest of her new family.
The fact that she didn’t really understand large numbers yet and therefore only had a faint conception of the enormity of the situation they faced was something that Eve was in no hurry to clarify. After all, if Sanctuary was able to bring them to battle on its terms, with the forces the Goths had at their command, at that point Iain and his harem had pretty much already lost.
Iain had spent several days in dreamtime with Zareen, courtesy of Eve, and under his direction she had learned to use many of the techniques available to the Nightmare breed. She’d proven a very quick study and he was looking forward to seeing her in battle.
Iain roused himself from his reverie as they neared the trees and tightened his grip slightly around Zareen’s waist. She patted his fingers with her free hand and accelerated smoothly to a quick canter as she surveyed the clearing ahead for the threats that had to be present.
The Black Skull Dragon rose from where it had been hiding behind a thick stand of trees and swept them aside with a single swipe of its claws. Zareen moved forward, summing her armor and activating cocoon of darkness in anticipation of the coming fight. She didn’t even panic when Iain unexpectedly screamed in agony and began struggling on her back.
The Nightmare whirled as she sought whatever had attacked her rider and he screamed louder as momentum flung him from her back in a spray of blood. He hit the ground hard and rolled before coming to a halt and curling up into a ball.
The construct vanished as April teleported to Iain. “Stop the exercise,” she yelled as Zareen whipped around to face her. “Iain’s badly hurt.” Eve joined them after instructing Dominique and Ninhursag to sweep the area for threats.
Iain’s clothing had been shredded and his arms, chest and lower torso were a mass of cuts that oozed blood. The damage continued on down his groin and inside his legs to the tops of his boots. His scrotum had been ripped and testes gleamed whitely in the sunlight. April was using a card to heal him as Zareen shifted back to her bipedal form. Eve knelt beside them and helped to push Iain flat on his back. “What happened to him, April?”
The Duelist didn’t look up. “I don’t know.”
Iain coughed and relaxed as his wounds knitted and the pain faded. “It wasn’t an attack,” he said weakly. “It was my fault.” He chuckled softly. “Completely my fault, if you look at it closely.”
“Oh?”
“I just had to be creative and give the Nightmare’s armor razor sharp dermal denticles. When Zareen activated her armor, it got me everywhere I was in contact with her body, just like it’s supposed to. Apparently we need to figure out some kind of saddle to keep that from happening.” He grimaced and looked down at himself. “Maybe I should look for a Vampire or other blood drinking breed. I keep letting my blood out and wasting it.”
“No.” Zareen went to her knees in front of him, pulled his pant legs open and began licking the blood from his inner thighs. She glanced up at him and deliberately dragged her tongue across his cock before sucking it into her mouth as it reflexively started to grow. Iain made a strangled noise and his head flopped backwards to hit the ground.
Eve scowled and swung back a fist, but before she could hit the Nightmare, Iain reached out and clamped Zareen’s nose shut with his fingers. “It’s clean,” he said quietly, “and it’s still time for training. Now let go.”
She released his cock and sat up to regard him calmly. “I’m sorry.”
“Zareen, you didn’t hurt me deliberately with your armor and that’s not your fault. As for the impromptu blowjob, this is just not the time or the place. Another time and I would have gratefully accepted it.”
She nodded and rose, shifting smoothly to her centaur form. “Later I’ll finish it.” Her tail swished as she turned and trotted off to the starting point for the exercise.
“Eve?” The Megami-sama stopped glaring at the retreating Nightmare and looked down at Iain as he pushed himself upright. He looked down at his chest and brushed futilely at the blood soaked dirt on him. “Don’t punish her for the blowjob.” He looked up at her. “But she did throw me again and that means she’s still not thinking about passengers. That needs fixed and immediately.”
April began peeling him out of the rags that used to be his shirt. “She knows her armor is dangerous and should have thought of you before using it.”
“She’s smart and won’t make that mistake again, April. She just doesn’t think in terms of other people yet.” He looked thoughtful. “I think I’m going to try to use the delta bond in a new way with her.”
Eve pulled him to his feet, earning an annoyed look from April. “What are you going to do while we smack Zareen around for a while?”
“I’m going to ask for a teleport back to the house so I can bathe and get some clothes that aren’t rags.”
“I’ll take care of it.” April stood and took him by the hand.
Eve gave April an even look. “To the house and right back. His cock does not need your ministrations right now. You tarry and unless the excuse is the place is under heavy attack I will put you on Zareen and work on correcting the two of you together.”
April gave her a flat look that suggested she hadn’t planned on being in a hurry to return and was not happy at the change in plan. “Yes, my maharani.”
***
Dominique’s scarlet eyes gazed into his worriedly. “She can’t protect you from the blast. Keep that in mind. We’ll be watching from a distance to give aid if we can, but if you feel there’s the slightest chance you’ll be in the blast, abort.”
Iain nodded. “Zareen and I know she can’t stop the direct blast, but she can protect me from secondary blast effects. We’ll be careful.”
“I would like to express my gratitude for doing this. While it was a good idea in the beginning, things have changed and that thing is just creepy. I’ll be glad when it’s gone.”
“I happen to agree, Dominique.” He turned to the Nightmare as the Archmage took to the air and flew off to join the other members of his harem. “Saddle?”
“No saddle.” Zareen shifted to her centaur form. She reached down and picked Iain up by his armpits, twisted and put him on her back.
He glared at her and shifted around to sit properly. “I am not a child.”
Her eyes twinkled. “You are.”
“Oh, really? I’m probably older than you are.”
“No.”
“And just how old are you?”
She shrugged. “Many many winters.”
“Huh?”
She held up one hand where he could see it, the fingers outstretched. Then she touched each finger in turn with the index finger of her other hand. “One. Two. Three. Four. Five.” Then she folded her other hand into a fist and raised her thumb. “One hand.” She turned to face the front. “After five hands is many. Beyond that is many many. Where?”
“Over there.” Iain pointed at the remains of a wall roughly the height of Zareen’s equine shoulders. “Put me alongside it.” The Nightmare stopped exactly where he wanted, with his right knee next to the wall. “Thanks.”
She turned her head to look at him. “Talk distracts and draws attention.” He stuck out his tongue at her and she smirked before turning back and beginning to alertly survey their surroundings. While she was doing that, he brushed the top of the wall clean to reveal what he was looking for, a small hollow that was perfectly suitable for his needs.
He started to close his eyes and frowned. It doesn’t really change anything since I can always see all around me with my perception. I just need to learn to deal with all of the visual distractions while I work. He held up his right hand and grasped the golden ring on his third finger with the thumb and index finger of his left hand. Focusing his mind, he set up the energy draining field around the ring and a blue transparent sphere five centimeters in diameter appeared around it. He carefully worked the ring loose, still keeping from moving it past the first knuckle and cautiously verifying as it moved that the sphere was fixed on the ring and not on his finger. He increased the rate of drain until the tickle he could feel from it pulling magic from his finger had become an almost unbearable itching and there was no chance the ring could activate.
He hoped.
Iain steeled himself and in one motion slowly slid the ring off of his finger, turned and carefully put it down on the wall. Then he slowly released the ring and sat up, watching the field closely as he did. “Walk.”
Zareen slowly moved away from the wall in a straight line. Iain kept his will iron hard and watched the field until they were a dozen meters from the wall. “Phase.” The breeze died as they became insubstantial. As Dominique had predicted might happen, the phasing process disrupted the connection between Iain and the magic draining field and it flickered for an instant before he could reassert control.
In that instant, magic flooded back to the ring and it reactivated, couldn’t detect Iain’s life energy inside the ring and, as designed, a tiny fraction of a gram of the ring’s mass became energy and it exploded with the force of four hundred and fifty kilograms of high explosive. The blast shattered the wall and everything around it for ten meters and threw fragments with lethal force for another hundred meters.
Iain winced as stuff flew through him and Zareen, but his worry was groundless as it passed through without effect. Once he was sure the blast was over, he sighed in relief. “Drop the phase and let’s go back.”
The breeze began to blow over them again as the Nightmare began to turn around. “Why?”
“I want to make sure no fires started.”
By the time they returned to the blast zone, Ninhursag was already surveying the area. She draped an arm over Zareen’s back as the Nightmare stopped next to her. “You didn’t start any fires, but you were pretty hard on the trees.” She motioned at the shattered trunks that surrounded the blast site.
He slid to the ground. “So?”
“I just thought you might want to know. I’ll go ahead and kill the trees you mutilated and turn them to fertilizer.”
“Do we need to wait while you replace them?”
She shook her head. “I’ll count them and grow a grove for us near our house. Nobody needs these trees and they weren’t really doing all that well here, so they won’t be missed.” She grinned. “I don’t really need to replace them at home either, but I did want to put more trees around our place and it’ll be a good excuse if Eve tries to stop me.”
Zareen laughed.
***
“Iain, I’ve got something for you.” April dropped a half meter tall figure into his lap. “Look, your doll came.”
Sure enough, the doll was an excellent representation of Iain and he chuckled as he sent his tome away. “Cute.” It was wearing a blue robe and sandals and Iain couldn’t resist the urge to peek under the robe. He did so and blinked in surprise. “If Micah’s was a large, that must be the fantasy size.”
The Duelist laughed and settled down next to him. “That’s what it is. What do you think?”
“I think,” he shook his head slowly. “I think I’m glad there isn’t a pokegirl that does poppet magic.”
“There is the Puppetmaster or the Dollmaster. They use dolls extensively.”
“They use their own dolls or control their victims for a short time from just a few meters away. There isn’t a pokegirl that uses poppets to control people from afar and I’m very glad of that fact.”
She got a faintly worried look. “I haven’t heard of anyone doing that, but maybe I shouldn’t give them out.”
He handed her the doll. “Go ahead if they want them. I don’t see anyone here using them that way even if they could and if a doll disappears we’ll hunt down and kill the thief.”
“That sounds like a plan.” April tucked the doll under her arm and got up. “I’ll talk to Eve about giving these to the harem.”
“You do that.” Instead of returning to his reading, Iain leaned back on the bench and watched the clouds drifting by overhead for a while.
“That looks extraordinarily busy.”
He blinked and dropped his gaze to Ninhursag’s face. “Bite me.”
The Elfqueen snorted. “You’d better not say that to Zareen. She just might, and not in a way you’ll enjoy. I’d like you to come with me.”
He got up. “What’s the matter?”
“The omega tree wants you.”
He blinked. “That sounds wrong on so many levels and I’m not sure how to respond. I don’t swing that way? I wasn’t aware that trees went feral or had libidos?”
Ninhursag shook her head. “That’s enough, Iain. The tree gave me the distinct impression that it wanted you to come visit it.” Silver eyes fixed on his. “It wants its creator.” She smiled without amusement. “Its god, if you will.”
“I am not a tree’s deity.”
“I believe that depends on what the tree has to say about the situation, but I will admit this is all very new to me. I’ve never come across a tree that’s as aware as this one is.”
“Is it sentient?”
“Not like you would define it.” She slipped her arm through his and led him towards the silver glittering in the distance. “All living things are aware to one extent or another. Plants know when it’s light or dark and they respond to other outside stimulation, but they don’t feel pain or think like you’d recognize it. Pokegirls with an affinity for plants can get a general feeling from them.” A thoughtful look appeared. “I have read fiction where plants were self aware and if the whole multiverse concept you propose is true, that means they’re out there somewhere, but I haven’t found any here.” She glanced at him. “You’re being very quiet.”
“I’m listening to your lecture. It’s new.”
“Don’t get into the habit Zareen has of not talking, Iain. You’ve got a pleasant voice and I like hearing it.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Good. Plants can have wants too, such as better soil or more or less water. It’s not that they can talk; it’s just that I feel what will make their life better as a want coming from them. The omega feels that your presence will satisfy something that will make its life better.”
“I really hope that doesn’t involve my being fed to it.”
“I wouldn’t be here if it did, Iain. A lot of plants could be bettered by regular fertilization with the nutrients found in the human body. I don’t normally go around satisfying that want.” She winked at him. “Unless it so happens that this plant pokegirl is the one that wants fertilization from you. Then I help me achieve that goal as fast as possible.”
He smiled back. “I can’t find fault with that.” They stopped underneath the spread of the omega tree. “What now?”
“I’m not completely sure. Stay here for a moment.” She headed for the trunk and pressed her hands against it as she closed her eyes. Several minutes passed before Ninhursag opened her eyes and gave him a faintly troubled look. “It will only tell you.”
“I don’t speak tree. I can’t even hear it. How the fuck is it supposed to tell me anything?”
“Iain, you have to trust me. Put your hands on the tree and I’ll help you to communicate with it. Can you do that?”
“If I didn’t trust you,” Iain stepped forward and placed his hands next to hers on the trunk, “you wouldn’t be here. What do I need to do?”
“You need to attune yourself to the tree. Mother told me that the delta bond can be used in a way that you can see what I’m doing, so feel what I’m doing and try to duplicate it.”
“Remind me to tell Autumn to explain a little more clearly to her daughters when we get to One,” he muttered softly and reached out through the delta bond to try and sense what the Elfqueen standing next to him was doing. “I’m as ready as I’m going to get.”
“I’m starting.” She closed her eyes and Iain felt as she reached out with her mind and adjusted her energy patterns to match those of the tree she was touching.
Iain paid extremely close attention, but when she was done he had no idea how to do it himself. He frowned as an idea came to him and stepped away from the tree, summoning his tome as he did so.
“Iain?” Ninhursag opened her eyes. “What’s going on?”
“Give me a second. I think I may know a way to do this.” He skimmed through the book and stopped at a particular section on physical camouflage. He read it several times and then held up his hand and slowly turned it the black of the tree trunk. “Ok, that was just an extension of my minor shapeshifting abilities.” He returned it to its normal color and closed the book. “Hmm.”
He stared off into the distance for a moment before Ninhursag pushed away from the tree. “What are you doing?”
He didn’t look at her. “According to you, being lazy. Just give me a second.” Finally he sent the book away and turned back to her. “Ok, I’m ready to give this a try.”
“What did you do?”
“I had to learn something new so I could attempt something radically different. It’s all about how I perceive things. You want me to attune myself to the tree.” He reached out and took her hand. “I don’t really know how to do that, but camouflage is all about mimicry. If I mimic your energy field, then I accomplish the same thing even though I can’t sense the tree’s energy patterns at all.” Using the delta bond, Iain adjusted his energy to match Ninhursag’s. “And now I’m done with,” his voice trailed off as his world came alive around him.
The omega tree hummed with energy and he could see how life vigorously coursed through its phloem and xylem. It was in stark contrast to the grass around them that was slowly dying back due to lack of sunlight. It wouldn’t completely die, but it was definitely unhappy about the permanent shade that had come about since the tree had been grown.
It was also thirsty.
Ninhursag smiled to herself as an expression of wonder filled Iain’s face and tightened her fingers over his. “Your eyes are silver, like mine. Do you see it?”
“The world you live in is incredible,” he said softly.
“It’s what I’ve always known, Iain.” She tugged gently. “Come to the tree.”
He let her lead him back to the omega tree and raised his hands, only to stop when circles of energy formed on the tree’s trunk and moved to match his motions. “What is that?”
“I sometimes wonder how the plant-blind manage to go through life,” she said gently. “That is the tree trying to touch you back, Iain. Somehow it knows its creator and it’s trying to reach out to you.”
Hesitantly, Iain pressed his palms against the trunk of the tree and shivered as its life thrummed through him. He could feel a vast incompleteness and a yearning from the tree that sang through his bones. “Iain,” Ninhursag said questioningly. “The tree is actually singing to you. Elves always sing to the trees not the other way around.”
“I’m not an Elf.” Iain pulled his knife from his belt. “But I know what it wants from me. Like almost everyone else, it wants blood.” He offered the knife to Ninhursag. “Please cut open my palms.” Ninhursag took the knife and slashed open the meaty part of Iain’s palms with a single swipe. He turned and planted both his hands against the tree’s trunk as blood welled up.
The omega tree made as loud noise as if a huge bell had rang inside it. The bark rippled and Iain’s hands sank into the trunk up his wrists. He stood there for nearly five minutes before he slowly sagged against the tree. “Too much,” he mumbled. “It’s getting cold.” Suddenly he grunted as his hands started coming out of the wood. They grasped a cylindrical object that looked to Ninhursag as if it were pushing his hands. He staggered backwards and fell, pulling the object free with him.
It was a staff two meters long, solid black and decorated with silver leaves along its length.
Ninhursag knelt and tapped him on the shoulder, careful not to touch the staff. “Iain, do I need to heal your hands?”
He looked tiredly up at her and let go of the staff to spread his hands. The palms had been completely healed. “I feel like shit.”
“You’ve been healed.”
He pushed himself up and fell back again. “Oh, that was a bad idea. I’ve lost a lot of blood. I’ve been here before and I happen to know what that feels like.”
“Iain, the tree gave you a staff. If you’ll let me touch it, I can carry you back to the house. If you don’t, it might hurt me if I touch it.”
Iain thrust the staff at her. “For the next day, I give you permission to handle this.”
Ninhursag took it with a smile. “Cute. That means I can’t handle it in a week. Very smart, Iain.”
He licked his lips. “Eve.”
She appeared. “What is it?” Her eyes widened and she dropped to her knees next to him. Leaning forward, she pressed her hand against his chest. “You’re cool and your heart is racing. What happened to you?”
“I’ve lost a lot of blood and I need fluid.”
The Megami-sama chuckled and settled down on the ground. “You didn’t have to do this just to get to nurse from me, Iain.” She tore open the neck of her dress to bare her breasts and carefully lifted him to a nipple. “Drink, and be healed.” She looked over his head to Ninhursag. “What happened?” She frowned at the sight of the staff. “Wasn’t a living bow enough for you?”
Ninhursag’s voice was defensive. “It’s not mine. It’s Iain’s.”
Blue eyebrows rose. “Why don’t you explain what’s been going on?”
“You were a Cherry once and I know you can still control plants and feel them. This morning I came out here and the tree let me know that Iain’s presence was necessary.” She nodded when Eve looked shocked. “Yeah, I felt the same way, but this is my tree and if it needed Iain but wasn’t going to hurt him, I’d get it Iain.”
“That makes sense,” Eve admitted slowly.
“I brought him here and the tree refused to tell me what it wanted. It let me know that it would tell Iain, but not me.”
“It would tell Iain? That doesn’t make sense.”
“I know. Apparently it’s more aware than many plants, but it’s still not self aware. Anyways, I showed Iain how to listen to what the tree had to say. It sang to him, Eve. Trees never sing first and they never sing to males. But this one did and it told Iain it wanted his blood. It still didn’t mean him any harm, so I helped him give it blood. That’s how he lost the blood. While he was feeding the tree, it healed his wounds and gave him this staff, without him requesting it.” She held the staff out so Eve could see it. “Iain gave me permission to handle it for the next day. It makes my skin crawl, Eve. It’s not made for me, it’s powerful and it’s eager to work with him.”
“What does it do?”
“I have no idea. I have the distinct impression that trying to bend it to my will could prove unhealthy and I’m not going to try.”
“You can always trust Iain to make the ordinary strange.”
He pulled away and looked up at her over the curve of her breast. “What the fuck is ordinary about a tree wanting to talk to me and then vampire my blood?”
“What did it say to you?”
He blinked. “They don’t really talk. You two can call it singing or anything else you want, but all I got was a general sense of its desires. It did know I was one of its parents and wanted my blood to finish its development. I should have realized that something that big needed more than a sip of my valuable hemoglobin.”
Eve shifted her torso and pushed his face against her other nipple. “You still need fluid.” She jumped and glared at him. “No biting.” He made a muffled noise and went back to nursing. “That’s better and I wasn’t giving you orders.”
Ninhursag shook her head. “He never does things the easy way, does he?”
“Of course he doesn’t. This is Iain we’re talking about. Push him and he pushes back. I even tried tricking him into doing things by trying to make him push in directions that I wanted, but he figured out what I was doing and that didn’t work either.” He snickered against her chest and she smacked him lightly. “Stop feeling superior. You’re just human.”
He pulled away slowly and pushed himself upright when she tried to gather him in again. “What I am is full. I gurgle when I move, Eve.” He gave her a lazy grin. “Trust me. I’ll be back just as soon as I’ve got room for more.”
Eve glanced at Ninhursag and colored slightly as she pulled her blouse closed. “That’s good to hear.”
Ninhursag folded her arms. “Eve, you’re a funny woman. I get you alone in the bedroom and you’re one of those uninhibited Megami who are willing to try just about anything. Have someone watching, and you get all shy as soon as the emergency is over. Eve, I’ve fucked you. I’ve seen it all. Hell, I’ve licked it all.”
Eve turned bright red, but before she could speak Iain put his hand over her mouth. “Ninhursag, please stop teasing her. We all have our issues. Leave Eve’s alone.”
“Oh, is that true? And just what is my issue?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t gone looking for it since I don’t use my ladies’ weaknesses against them.” He looked at her curiously. “Or would you enjoy that?”
“What do you mean by that?”
“I didn’t stutter. You might like being humiliated. Some people do.”
“Well, I don’t.”
“Neither does Eve.”
The Elfqueen opened her mouth and closed it. Finally she bent over in a deep bow. “You’re right and I was out of line. Eve, I’m sorry for embarrassing you in front of Iain.”
“I hope you’re sorry you embarrassed her at all.”
She blinked. “That’s what I meant, Iain. I’m sorry, Eve.”
Eve looked down at Iain and he removed his hand. “Thank you. I accept your apology, Ninhursag.”
The Elfqueen snorted softly. “I think I’ll appreciate the fact that Iain has no bend a little more when he’s being unyielding for my benefit.”
“He wouldn’t let me go through your gear and get rid of weapons I didn’t think you needed. Does that help?”
Ninhursag looked at Iain. “You were serious about my stuff being mine?” He nodded firmly and then blinked as his world spun. “That’s very nice for you to say, Iain, but I told you it wasn’t necessary. Even Lucifer has our gear searched when we bring it on base. How do you know that you can trust me?”
“We’ve already had the discussion where I told you that if I didn’t trust you your ass would be gone already. You are one of us and you are an adult, so I expect you to be either be able to use all the gear you brought with you or to get the training you need just as soon as possible. I expect the same from any gear you get from now on. If I give you gear, I’ll make damned sure you are trained on it.”
“What if you brought a Bunnygirl or something like that into the family?”
“I don’t see that happening. However, if it happened we’d work out where her limits lay and, keeping those in mind, help her to rise to whatever level she wanted to.”
“What if I betrayed you? Some pokegirls can do that even after they’re bonded.”
“If a member of our family betrays us, I’ll kill her myself.”
Eve slid to her feet. “I think you’d have to stand in line, Iain. We know you’re not interested in betraying us, Ninhursag. We also know you’ll help if someone else tries to betray us.”
“Damned right I will.”
Eve knelt and carefully scooped Iain up in her arms. “Now that you’ve had something to drink, I think you need to go to bed for the rest of the day. Ninhursag, please bring his staff and come along.”
***
Iain stopped at the bottom of the stairs and looked around for Dominique. “There you are.” The redhead waved to him from where she was sitting at a narrow table. “Come on and join me.” Iain moved slowly across the floor and sank gratefully into a chair. “Are you ok?”
He started to shake his head and stopped with an effort. “Not really. I get really dizzy if I move too fast. Eve says I should spend another day in bed.”
“You, of course, are up because of that.”
“I’m up because if I keep moving, April can’t shove any more kattle liver down my throat.” He made a face. “I like a piece of liver about once a year, and three years ago my mother got me to eat several pieces. That time hasn’t run out yet and April has already added another three years to the interval. I know its rich in iron and I don’t care.” He sighed. “I’m hydrated out the ass and that’s going to have to do it while my body makes more corpuscles.”
“Want some tea?”
“It’s not the best choice right now. How about some lemonade? The vitamin C will help me absorb more iron from the ton of spinach I had for breakfast.”
“It looked like a nice quiche.”
“Dominique, a quiche is mostly egg with other things for filler. That was a spinach loaf that used egg as a binder.”
The Archmage laughed as she got the decanter and filled a pitcher with lemonade. “Where’s your staff?”
“In my room. I wasn’t sure I could navigate the stairs by myself, much less if I was also lugging that thing around with me. Now, why did you invite me into your sanctum sanctorum?”
Dominique got up and returned with a small box. She sat down and pushed the box towards Iain. “I thought this might be a possible plan B for Sanctuary or, if not, of possible general use if we want to rob banks or cause widespread mayhem.” Iain opened the box to find it full of golden spheres the size of BBs. “I’ve been working on the theory since I made your ring, but I didn’t finish it because we weren’t sure how powerful the ring’s blast was. Once I looked over the damage your ring did, I finished these.”
“What are they?”
“They’re command detonated versions of the same spell that was on your ring.”
Iain’s head came up sharply. “How many?”
“A hundred.” She smiled at his expression. “It was a good round number.”
“This is the equivalent of forty five tons of explosives?” His voice was high. He swallowed and took a gulp of lemonade as he forced himself to relax. “What happens if someone accidentally detonates them down here?”
“They can’t unless they know exactly how to do that and I haven’t written the procedure down. If I die, the knowledge of how to set these off dies with me.” She met his gaze. “If you want me to get rid of them, I’ll toss them in the ocean and we can set them off.”
“We?”
She looked around and muttered a spell. “I have spells up to keep from being scried on, but now we’re doubly safe from magical observation. I’m still going to be brief. I tuned all of these to you, Iain. Only you can detonate them. You have the strongest will I’ve seen in my whole life. You’ve proven that you can’t be mind probed against your will, so these are the best security safeguards I could come up with.” She smiled slightly. “That and the original spell on the ring was made especially for you and this is just a variant of it. Anyone copying it will end up tuning whatever they set up so that you’re the only person who can activate it.”
“I’m not sure that makes me feel more comfortable, but ok. You should probably show me how to activate them and then we’ll take it from there.”
“I knew you wouldn’t be upset.” She grinned. “You think a lot like I do.” She looked down at the table and when she looked back up, her face was deadly serious. “Iain, I want something from you. When you are comfortable with your magic, please teach me whatever you can. You still don’t know more than I do, but what you can do is very different from the way I learned magic and if I can learn to do some of what you can, it’ll make me much more flexible both in and out of combat. In return, I’ll try to teach you some combat magic that I know.”
He reached out and took her hands. “Dominique, if I can teach you what I know, you’re welcome to it. I love you, remember? What I have is yours without price.”
“Can I get you to not teach any of this to Eve?”
His right eyebrow rose. “Isn’t that a tiny bit selfish?”
“Well, technically it’s a lot selfish. Does that mean you aren’t going to agree to my request?”
“Dominique, if Eve expresses an interest in it, I’ll try to teach her too. So far, she hasn’t, and neither has April nor Ninhursag.”
“Ok. So if nothing else, if I can master it, I’ll probably be the first.” A contented smile spread across her face. “That’ll be good enough for me.”
“That’s good.” Iain pushed the box back to Dominique. “You keep these and later you can show me how to detonate them. If nothing else, I suppose if I dumped them on the floor in the council chamber and detonated them, few people would escape the blast. Still, I’d like an idea that didn’t involve me dying too.”
“Me too.” Dominique got up with the box. “I’ll lock these back up.”
Iain headed slowly upstairs and retrieved his staff before going outside.
It made a handy cane.
He forced himself to make the walk all the way to the omega tree and settled with his back against the trunk. “I hope you got something useful out of my blood, you leafy vampire,” he muttered as he summoned his tome.
The tree ignored him.
A couple of hours later he put the book away. Eve, do you have a few minutes?
I’ll be right there. Have you had lunch yet?
No.
A few minutes later she arrived with a bundle in her arms. She laid it down and unwrapped it to reveal a plate filled with hot kattle steaks and potatoes. “I’ve also got a thermos of lemonade. Interestingly enough, Dominique told April to stop feeding you liver. Is there something I should know?”
“I don’t like it?”
“”That’s good to know, Iain. I’ll mention that to April later.” She handed him a fork and knife before sliding a steak and a potato onto a second plate and getting her utensils. “Tuck in.”
When the meal had been reduced to scraps, Eve wrapped everything back up. “Why did you want to talk to me?”
“When I went off to abuse woodland animals, Eirian brought something interesting up. She pointed out that I’ve been recruiting new pokegirls for my living harem and that I lost Sable from my dead one and I haven’t done anything about her loss.”
Eve looked amused. “What does she expect you to do, pull a lich Dragoness out of your pocket? We can’t exactly go looking for feral ones and I’m pretty sure they’re not for sale anywhere.”
“Eoghan used a laboratory to turn the Dragonesses into undead. He created Aurum and Eirian first and they helped with the others. Eirian assures me that she remembers how to turn someone into a lich.”
Eve gave him a slightly worried glance. “Why would we want to create more of them? They are an abomination to all life and I only tolerate their presence because they are yours and do what you want.”
“That and you have no idea how to destroy them?”
She shrugged. “That too.”
“Eirian thinks that Pokegirl One will have a version of Eoghan, Germanicus and Ygerna. She is confident that Eoghan and or Ygerna will find out about us and come looking to see what’s going on.”
Eve paled.
Iain continued mercilessly. “She also estimates that we are not strong enough to destroy Eoghan and Germanicus even with the Dragonesses. According to her power estimates, we will not cross that threshold for at least another century. She does think that a dozen liches will be able to either defeat or frighten him off.”
“Fuck,” she breathed. “Maybe he’ll go for Shikarou or Kerrik instead.” When he just gave her a look, she sighed loudly. “We can’t count on that, can we?”
“Not if we want to live.”
“What did you tell Eirian?”
“I told her I was not going to authorize her kidnapping people and murdering them so they could be added to my dead harem.”
“What did she say?”
“I think she knew that’s what I’d decide and she came up with another alternative. She wants to Valkyrie pokegirls beyond medical help and turn them into liches. She also suggested that they’d catch pokegirls attacking us and convert them since we were just going to kill them. She said it would give a use to an otherwise wasted life.”
Eve’s eyes were saucers. “That’s very seductive reasoning.”
“Yes, it is. And that’s why I wanted to talk to you before I decided anything. More than anyone else, you are my moral compass in the wilderness that is my personality.”
She gave him a rueful smile. “It could be said that I haven’t been doing a very good job of it then. We’re planning to kill a whole bunch of people in Sanctuary just so they’ll stop trying to kill us.”
“I think that’s an excellent reason to get Biblical on them.”
“Biblical?”
“Do unto others as they would do unto you. Just do it before they can.”
“That’s not what it says. Matthew says: ‘therefore all things whatever you would that men should do to you, do you even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.’”
“I never said it came from the Christian Bible. What do you think I should tell Eirian?”
Eve closed her eyes and rocked slowly for several minutes. Without opening them, she turned to face him. Her voice was a whisper. “Iain Grey, as an author, tell me, do Eoghan, Germanicus and Ygerna exist on Pokegirl One?”
Iain nodded slowly. “Yes. I’d intended to use them in a possible story later on.”
“Are the circumstances similar there? Are Eoghan and Germanicus liches and is Ygerna alone without others of her race? Did Eoghan murder them and plan to make Ygerna his bride?”
“Yes. The story was going to involve the children of Kerrik and someone in his harem. There were differences, however. Germanicus was his friend and willing ally and he and Eoghan were much more widely traveled. They intended to make Germanicus king of half the world and Eoghan king of the other half.”
Eve was silent for a time. “Then we are in danger. We are the weakest of the three groups and will be the easiest for any of them to take.” Her eyes opened. “I don’t think I can accept Eirian taking people who would not otherwise die for this project. It goes against too much that I hold dear.”
“Then the Valkyrie option it is?”
“I can accept that. You can live with that without being eaten up by guilt.”
He nodded. “Then so mote it be.”
***
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