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Loose Threads
One Hundred Forty Six
The platoon came to a halt outside the mayor’s office. A woman with lime colored hair turned to her sergeant, the only male in the group. “Josh, establish a perimeter while I talk to the mayor. Stay alert for League forces.”
“On it, Captain.” Josh began issuing instructions as she headed inside.
A middle aged black woman behind a desk started to give a professional smile that vanished when the visitor’s hair color and military uniform registered. “What do you want,” she asked crisply.
“I’m Captain Peyton and I’m here to talk to Mayor Cuthbert Mason. Before you offer to let me wait while you inform him that I’m here and he decides if he’s going to see me, I’m going to have to insist on seeing him immediately. Attempting to hinder me will result in your detainment, hopefully without injury to you. Where is his office?” She smiled suddenly. “Instead, take me to his office. That way you won’t figure out a way to warn him I’m coming.”
“He’s not here,” the woman said suddenly. “He’s out attending to the needs of the constituents of Alexandria.”
Captain Peyton smiled amusedly as she glanced at the nameplate on the desk that read Loretta Jackson. “Miss Jackson, I want you to take me to his office anyway.” She raised a finger before the woman could speak again. “Your loyalty is admirable and I would like to encourage such behavior in most cases, but not now. If you argue with me, I’ll have you detained and this building searched. I already know that Mason is here. Once Mason is located, I’ll have him put in chains and dragged outside where he and I will have the same talk we’re going to have except he’ll have been shamed and embarrassed because you decided to be a bitch and that because you don’t feel I’m human enough. You can rest assured that I’ll make sure he knows you are the reason I had him clapped in irons and dragged out into the public eye before I have him released to go about the rest of his day. You, I may have to keep for a while longer.”
Jackson’s eyes had been getting bigger and bigger. She abruptly rose. “This way.” She led Captain Peyton down a hall, up a flight of stairs and to a pair of ten foot high doors. “This is Mayor Mason’s office.”
“Please announce me, Miss Jackson, and then you’ll be free to go.”
Jackson opened one of the doors and looked inside. A deep voice sounded from inside the room. “Loretta?”
“Sir, there’s an Indigo military pokegirl here and she insists on seeing you immediately. She’s with me now.”
“Then show her in, Loretta.”
Jackson opened the door and stepped aside as Captain Peyton entered. She closed the door behind Peyton as a massive black man stood behind the desk he’d been sitting at. He frowned. “I don’t recognize your insignia, and that isn’t any Indigo League’s badge I’ve ever heard of. I know about the surrender. May I presume you are clan?”
“Mayor Mason, I am Captain Rhonda Peyton and I am the Grey Clan representative for Alexandria and the surrounding parishes. I wanted to meet the civilian leader for the area and explain to you what we will be doing in the near term as we settle in.” She cocked her head. “Will you shake my hand in greeting?”
Mason looked surprised and held out his hand. “Of course.” They shook and he smiled and waved at a chair. “I know you’re in charge in this meeting, but please sit.” Peyton settled into the chair as he sat back down. “I am curious, why did you ask me if I’d shake your hand?”
“Please understand that this isn’t a threat, but I’m a Neo Iczel, Mayor Mason. I sometimes have a hard time keeping a grip on my temper and your secretary had already irritated me. I didn’t want to offer you my hand, have you insult me, lose my temper and then hurl you out the window behind you before I could get it back under control. It would send the wrong message since I’m trying to make peaceful initial contact with you and your populace.”
Mason smiled slightly. “That would send the wrong message and, if I survived it, I would not be nearly as reasonable as I might otherwise be. You said you’re here to explain what you’ll be doing as you settle in? You’re not here to give me orders?”
Peyton smiled. “With the understanding that if you ever stand against me, I will kill you without hesitation or remorse, I am not. As the clan representative here, I am the ultimate authority in this region. However, you know the people and I do not. I hope to work with you to get things done and I want to start our relationship out on that note. I hope that, while I expect our relationship to be awkward in the beginning, things will smooth out when you realize that I am not going to start out acting like someone from Indigo would and just issue orders that I expect to be blindly obeyed. I want your input into the things that need to be done as well as the ones that could be done because you might have a way to accomplish them that is more efficient or more acceptable than the way I originally envisioned something being done. Unlike Indigo, which did not care, I hope to build goodwill between the clan and the Protected Folk I am responsible for.”
“What are Protected Folk?”
“The territory that we have conquered is Grey Clan, but the people living in it are not automatically my clanswomen. You are Outlanders, but you are our Outlanders and you are to be nurtured and protected while we convince the ones of you that we can to become clan and while we arrange to raise your children as clan and not Outlander. In a generation or two, everyone here will be clan as the Outlanders who decide, for one reason or another, not to be clan, die out at the natural end of their lives.”
Mason was staring at her. “That’s,” he shook his head, “kind of frightening, actually. There will be those who will resist, if only because they are loyal to Indigo.”
Captain Peyton smiled maliciously. “Indigo did not inspire loyalty. Indigo attracted the cruel and the rapacious who could find a way to punish pokegirls for crimes that they did not commit or for a war that has been over for years and that punished us more severely than you can imagine. It attracted monsters who wanted to be monstrous to anyone that they could, human or pokegirl. I want them to resist us. I want them to attack us so their executions are legal and justified under clan law. I want them to do it quickly so that I can remove their stain upon the Earth and then get to the business of rebuilding humanity and preparing for the darkness that is coming to swallow us all up.”
Mason was shocked by her vehemence. “What is coming?”
“My sisters in war, those who were not captured and bonded or who were never lucky enough to find a man of their own, they still live. They are the ferals who haunt the wilderness. They are reproducing faster than you can imagine. Now they, their daughters and their granddaughters are eating everything that lives in the wilderness with them, including weaker pokegirls and the occasional stray human. When they have nothing else to eat, they will turn to us, we who have fields of crops and who are meat walking on two or more legs. Their memories will make them wary, but their hunger will make them fearless. When they are hungry enough and fearless enough, they will come for us all and they won’t care if they eat you or me, one of their sisters in battle. They will happily eat us both and everyone and everything around us. When they come, the clan will be ready and all of us, human, pokegirl or other, we will fight and we will win. But even in victory, not all of us will survive. We are here to make you, our future partners, strong enough to kill them, capture them for our uses or drive them north to feed on the Outlanders who are not protected by the clan. We survive. Once our survival is assured, only then do we consider helping Outlanders to survive too.”
Mason nodded. “I agree. I have to ask, if it comes down to saving a clansman or saving one of us, a protected Outlander, you would save the clansman?”
“I would save the clanswoman first and then do my best to save the protected Outlander too.”
“At least you’re honest about your priorities.”
Peyton laughed. “We try to be very honest in our dealings with clan and that will carry over into my dealings with you. In fact, some of you will say I am too honest and try to use my honesty as a weakness against me. It will not work, but the greedy will feel I am as greedy as they are, at least in the beginning. Now, I wish to tell you what we will be doing initially, that you may inform the others in my sphere of responsibility.” She smiled. “And hopefully so, if I am doing something incredibly stupid, you’ll warn me and suggest an alternate method that won’t alienate everyone around me.”
“I’ll certainly try. The Indigos did not leave many of us with positive impressions and that is, unfortunately, going to carry over into their feelings for you, whether justified or not.”
Peyton nodded. “I understand that parts of this are going to be an uphill battle, especially in the beginning. We are going to perform a survey of the town and its surroundings. Then I’m going to claim a piece of land outside the city proper but not too far away for our base. I won’t choose a location that’s in active use and I’ll check with you first, but I will not hold off because someone claims to hold a piece of property that’s obviously not being developed and I will not compensate them for this imaginary loss.”
Mason looked surprised. “You won’t take places in the city?”
“Security is going to be our overriding focus while we get established, so no. Besides, that kind of behavior is rude, normally against clan law and the Indigos were idiots to deliberately go about pissing off the people they were stealing food from. Our base is going to be dropped off and we’ll make arrangements for purchasing provisions at the going rate from the locals, as much as we can. If they won’t sell to us, I won’t force the issue or steal from them. I can get supplies from elsewhere if necessary. However, I will remember them and not favorably when, in a couple of years, they come complaining that I’m not spending money in the local economy, at least with them. I have a long memory for insults. Josh says it’s one of my biggest failings and I think he’s annoyingly right about that sort of thing.”
“Josh?”
“Joshua Peyton is my husband and my sergeant.”
Mason looked shocked. “You outrank your husband?”
“Josh, for all his good points, is not officer material. He’d be the first to admit it. Once we’re established in our base, I’ll be bringing in a medical unit. It’s going to be moving between the Alexandria Zone and several other zones on a regular rotation, so it will not be permanently based here.”
“What is it going to be doing?”
“We intend to give the Protected Folk what we consider a decent level of medical care. Limbs and other lost items will be regenerated, chronic illnesses cured, both for humans and any pokegirls you may have.”
Mason blinked. “You can regrow lost limbs?”
“And organs, repair hearing damage and a host of other ills. We intend to build goodwill and hope to recruit everyone here who is worthy of becoming clan. Regrowing the leg that some Indigo bitch ripped off someone’s brother will hopefully make people more positively inclined towards us. We should be able to repair almost anything except brain damage. We can probably repair that too in many cases, but there will need to be some extensive testing and the family must understand that the person who emerges from that kind of repair may not be what the family remembered from before the injury because of memory loss and other time extended trauma.”
“If you can do something like that, it will certainly help build some goodwill in the community. Getting people to believe you may be difficult, especially in the beginning, though.”
Peyton nodded as she stood. “True, but someone will be desperate enough to want to seek our help or someone who opposes us will arrange for us to get someone to help to prove how big a bunch of frauds we are. Either way, once we prove we can do what we say we can, others will seek us out. Now, I am going to have to say farewell, at least for now. I’ll have one of my people come by to arrange for regular meetings between us so we can coordinate how to best help the community.”
Mason stood and held out his hand, smiling when Peyton shook it. “I cautiously look forward to working with you.” When she raised an eyebrow, he shrugged. “You sound too good to believe and, frankly, so did the Indigos, at least in the beginning.”
“True. I realize that only time will prove our intentions. Besides, I will crush those who stand against us. I just won’t go looking for innocent people to punish.” Something in her eyes sent a chill down Mason’s spine. “We don’t keep prisons, Mayor Mason. I can and will detain people for a few days to determine their innocence or guilt, but once I do that, I release the innocent and compensate them for their time. I punish the guilty. Clan law is very specific on punishment and, compared to that of the old United States, rather Biblical. Lashes for crimes that aren’t capital crimes. Death for capital crimes. Once someone has been punished, they are released to be Protected Folk or clan once more. There are no felons and we don’t hold making a mistake against someone. The only mitigating factor for killing is self defense and there is no mitigating factor for rape. That includes the rape of an aware pokegirl. I will publish clan law and starting a week later, I will enforce it within my entire jurisdiction. And clan law takes precedence over what used to be Outlander law. Do you understand me, Mayor Mason?”
“I do. Do you hold your clansmen to the same standard you will hold us?”
“Mayor Mason, I hold my clanswomen to a much higher standard than I hold Outlanders to. You don’t believe me now, but you’ll learn.” She turned towards the door and paused. “Please emphasize that to your people. I was not sent here to be lenient. I was sent to turn those I can into clan, I was sent to prepare you for the ferals and,” she opened the door and turned back to look into the mayor’s eyes one last time, “I was sent to enforce clan law and completely end the lawlessness that was the normal way under Indigo. I will carry out all my responsibilities. Those who stand with me will be cherished. Those who don’t stand against me will be respected. Those who stand against me will be eliminated. I don’t have time to be nice and, honestly, it’s not my nature to be kind to my attackers. I won’t.”
***
Something large is headed towards our location. Satellite surveillance shows it is a dragon. Iain had brought a single satellite along with him and it was parked overhead. It’s coming in from the northwest and is two kilometers out. ETA is two minutes and seven seconds, mark.
Iain looked at the cookfire where he was roasting a large animal that he’d killed, stuck his finger in his mouth and then held it in the air, noting which side suddenly felt cool. “It’s following the smell of the cooking meat. I was hoping it might draw predators that I could add to my larder, but I’m not a cannibal. I’ll have to figure out how to contain the smoke and odor from now on.” A minute later he was watching when it appeared as it flew towards him. It circled his camp and landed a dozen meters away. She, for his nose told him it was a dragoness, was smaller than Nightraven or Caintigern. She was also much thinner than normal and she eyed the meat interestedly before examining him. He kept his tone even and pleasant as he spoke. “I have enough to share with you if you shift. In your current form, there isn’t enough to share and I am not going to go hungry to feed you.”
The dragoness shifted. Her human form was as tall as he was and as thin as her dragoness form was. Her face was not quite emaciated, but it was obvious she hadn’t been eating regularly. Her shoulder length hair was black and shot through with large bundles of silver strands. She was wearing a simple cotton shift and was barefoot. “Did you find a forest fire and capture some of it for your use? I have not been able to successfully do that.”
Iain frowned. “Making fire with magic is easy.”
“It is, but it is hard to make only enough fire to cook food.”
He shook his head slowly. “I hadn’t considered that most of us are self taught and might not be able to do the things that I think are easy to do. The meat needs to cook for a few more minutes before it’ll be ready.”
She eyed the meat again. “I have not had meat in a while. You offer to let me feed from your kill?”
“I do not.” She blinked and focused on him. “I’m not looking to court you. I was only offering you a chance to eat some of my food.”
“What do you want in return? The other drake wants sex. I am willing to allow this if you do too.”
“I thought that Fifth World was uninhabited,” Iain muttered.
Her eyes met his. “There are not many of the People here. The skills necessary to successfully travel to this world are not common. Having access to a telescope powerful enough to see this world is even rarer. I had to call in several favors to get to use one to jump here. I arrived very high in the air. It was too thin to support me and I almost crashed before I could get control of my flight.”
Jump? Did she do a visual teleport from one of the worlds of the People to here? Not even we’re insane enough to try that, and you’re certifiable. Of course, we’re not desperate enough to try something that insane either and they wouldn’t know the gate coordinates to this world.
“I can roast some vegetables too, if you’d like.”
The dragoness eyed him curiously. “You do not want sex with me and you are not courting me. Why offer me things that are yours?”
“I’m being polite. You act hungry and I have plenty of food.”
The dragoness frowned. “I have found that most of the plants do not taste very good and do not seem to be very nutritious. They do not sate my hunger no matter how many of them I consume. They are very hard to digest.”
That was because, as Iain had discovered, the local plants didn’t produce all of the amino acids that a dragon of the People required. They also had some enzymes that acted as powerful laxatives and were high enough in some alkaloids to be troublesome. There were enough alkaloids that they would kill any humans who ate the local plants. According to what Iain had read, when the People had colonized Fifth World, they’d had to import seeds and plants from the other four inhabited worlds. He’d brought seeds along from terrestrial and Faerunean plants and had been using his magic to speed their growth. Fortunately the animals were completely edible and cooking removed any bitterness from the meat of the herbivores.
“I was concerned that might be the case, so I brought some seeds with me and have been speed growing them. I’m still experimenting with the local plants, but they seem to be more useful as potential dyes and sources of fiber than as food. Still, there are lot of plants I haven’t tasted yet. They can’t all taste like garbage.”
“Every plant that I have tried has.” Iain started to ask a question and stopped. “What were you going to say?”
“I started to ask if you’d tried cooking them and realized that you couldn’t have since you don’t have ready access to fire.” He checked the meat and got out a plate and a large knife. “The other end needs some time to cook properly but this is the thinner end and it’s ready.” He cut several thick slices off the meat and handed her the plate. “Do you want,” he started to ask but stopped as she used her fingers to begin stuffing the hot meat into her mouth. “I see you don’t want cutlery.” Iain kept filling her plate until she slowed down. “By the way, my name is Iain. What’s yours?”
She frowned, licking her fingers clean. “I do not recognize the region where that name comes from, but then I am not widely traveled. I am Winter’s Dream.”
Iain stared at her in shock for a second. “I have heard your name before. I was led to understand that you went to a different universe to establish a library and continue your research into the various dimensions,” Iain said, his voice heavy with surprise.
“I am pleased that you have heard of me. However, I traveled here, to another world. I see no reason to leave this universe,” Winter’s Dream’s voice turned bitter. “I arrived here and nearly died. I did build my library here as I’d intended to, only to have a pair of sisters drive me from it once it was complete. I tried once to get it back and they would have killed me if I hadn’t fled.Since then, I have been more concerned with survival than anything else.” She eyed him warily. “You are not with them, are you?”
“I have been on this world for only two days,” Iain said. “And I am not associated with anyone here. You’re the first person I’ve met and, honestly, I thought this world was uninhabited by the People or I’d have tried my luck on Sixth World or just stayed in space.”
“Sixth World?”
“This is Fifth World, because it’s the fifth world out from the sun that’s still in the habitable zone. Sixth world,” Iain sketched a rough solar system in the dirt, “is here and is barely in the habitable zone. It’s really only habitable on the equator and the rest is frozen well below zero. Up at the poles you can find shoals of carbon dioxide ice.”
“What is a habitable zone?”
“It’s the region in a solar system where the radiation and heat from the sun isn’t so hot that water won’t condense or so frigid that temperatures won’t let the world support carbon based life. The actual distance varies from star to star and its stellar output. It can be influenced by cloud cover, albedo and a couple of other factors. The presence or absence of a magnetic field being generated by the planet is very important too.”
Winter’s Dream slowly handed the plate back for Iain to fill it again. “You are very well educated. I suspect very few dragonesses would know what you so easily explained. Drakes do not receive this kind of education.”
Iain grimaced as he refilled the plate and handed it back to her. “I have traveled to other universes and seen other sentient races. I learned many things from them during my travels. When I journey to the worlds of the People I’ll have to hide that better than I just did or I’ll probably get into trouble.”
“I have never heard of anyone who is as widely traveled as you claim to be.”
Iain chuckled. “Claim? I have no reason to lie to you.”
“Some lie to make themselves feel better about their lives,” Winter’s Dream said pertly. “That is their reason for lying and it doesn’t matter who they lie to when they lie or what lies they tell.”
“True and also true. However, I am not like that.” He smiled. “Of course, if I were, I’d lie to you and tell you that I wasn’t so you’d believe the other things I say.” Hs smile faded. “You can either believe that I don’t have that kind of,” he paused and tried to find an equivalent word in the language of the People for narcissistic and failing, “obsession with how superior I am compared to everyone else or you believe that I do. And if you do believe I’m that way, you may leave since that would be best for you and, in the end, great for me.”
“You don’t want me here?”
“With all due respect, Winter’s Dream, you followed the scent of cooking food here because you were very hungry. You were hungry enough to offer to have sex with me in return for food. You did not come here because you wanted to have sex with someone. You also did not come here because we’re friends and you missed my company. Additionally, I didn’t invite you here. You didn’t even know who was here and you were willing to risk being attacked to fill your stomach. I don’t fault you for that; survival is the most basic drive for anything that’s alive. The drive to reproduce is a very close second to survival, but without survival, an organism cannot reproduce. I fed you, not because I want something from you, but because I am polite and I believe that hospitality and charity are two of the keystones of polite behavior.”
Winter’s Dream was staring at him in obvious surprise. “Are you talking philosophy?”
Iain chuckled. “I have an inquisitive mind and the natural sciences easily lend themselves to exploration and speculation, which is the heart of philosophy.”
“I begin to understand why you have left the society of the People. Most dragonesses would not appreciate a drake who is so intelligent. They would not understand that an intelligent drake would produce intelligent dragonesses and improve almost any line he bred into.”
“You think there’s room for improvement in the People?”
Winter’s Dream flared immediately. “I know there is room for improvement in the People! We are far from perfect, even if the others refuse to see that. The fact that they don’t understand something so obvious proves it!” She flushed red. “I am sorry for my outburst.”
“I accept your apology, even if I don’t feel it is necessary since I agree with you,” Iain said with a chuckle. “I do wonder what Nightraven would have been like if she’d managed to find you.”
“Who is that?”
“I mentioned that I’d heard of you. She’s the dragoness who I heard about you from. She was looking for you. She wanted to make a deal with you to become your student in your studies about the origins of the universe and also to use your library for her research. Unfortunately, the information she had on your life suggested that you’d gone to one of a few other universes and she followed her clues to visit those places in search of you. Now I know she went to the wrong locations.”
“Nightraven,” Winter’s Dream said slowly. “That name sounds familiar. I believe it is one that that belonged to someone from the Royal bloodline. At one point I was hosted by a member of the Royal bloodline who was interested in my discussions and research up to that point. She wished to show me off as evidence of her sophistication and I met many members of the Royal bloodline.” She popped another piece of meat into her mouth and chewed thoughtfully. “I do remember a very young child with that name. She would not yet be an adult.” Her eyes sharpened on Iain. “I also remember that, even at that early age, she had already been chosen for magical training that only the best of the Royal line is even considered for. The academy she is attending is only for Royals who might someday aspire to being a Princess.”
“She’s a bit of a prodigy,” Iain said amusedly.
“And she is still too young to make the decision to seek me out,” Winter’s Dream noted. “Can you explain why you claim she has already tried to do so and failed?”
“I can explain it. I am not sure that you’ll believe what I tell you, but I can explain it.”
“You cannot decide if I will believe something or not. Only I can. I would like to hear your explanation.”
“The summary is that I’m here in the present, having traveled here from the future. In that future, I met Nightraven. She is an adult and she told me about how she came to be where she was when we met, which involved her going looking for you.”
“I do find that hard to believe. Why are you here now, in this time and at this place?”
Iain hesitated. “In a relatively short period of time, Nightraven and another dragoness will be joining me here. I am concerned that if you know the truth, they might decide to kill you.”
“I wish to know. If it costs me my life, I have been prepared to give up my life for my causes for a long time and I will accept the price I may have to pay. Tell me.”
“You know, your behavior is not what I would expect from a dragoness. You are not demanding the way I’d expect one to.”
“I have been told that I am too kind to drakes that I deal with.”
“I like it, which is why I am going to tell you and then I’ll try to intercede with Nightraven and Caintigern if it becomes necessary. Just understand that I will have to tell them that I have informed you because it might cause issues if I do not.”
“I understand and I accept your conditions.”
“There is a threat, both to the Royal bloodline and to the continued existence of the People as a whole. I am here to establish a beachhead before they join me. We intend to approach the Queen and to enlist her help in keeping this threat from being realized. In our future, this threat was not stopped and it resulted in the murders of everyone who possessed Royal blood except for two people. Later, it resulted in the destruction of the inhabited worlds of the People and their extinction as a race. We hope to keep the Royal bloodline and the People as a race alive.”
“How does this happen?”
“Are you sure you want to know more?”
“Perhaps I can help,” Winter’s Dream said. “I won’t know until I know what happened.”
Iain nodded. “Queen Malikar XXXIV either has already decided to or will, fairly soon, decide that she is tired of being Queen. She knows that Princess Stillwater cannot defeat her and become Queen. She is unwilling to just allow her daughter to kill her, so she will abdicate the throne and place her daughter on the throne before leaving the worlds of the People for another universe.”
“This is unheard of,” Winter’s Dream said in a tone of astonishment. “You are sure of these events?”
“I am.”
Winter’s Dream’s eyes narrowed. “You said that only two of the People survived. You said that Nightraven will be joining us. The other must be Dawn Light.”
“Who?”
“That is the name of Queen Malikar XXXIV before she took the throne. I read about her life before she became Queen. I presumed that she would take that name again once she had stepped down.”
“She uses the name Caintigern now and yes, it is her. You’re very good at deduction.”
She smiled. “I am. Here, I would have rather been better at hunting.”
“If it comes down to it, I can teach you how to hunt. It would be much harder to teach you deductive reasoning.”
Winter’s Dream leaned forward eagerly. “I want to help. I can help you deduce things and, if nothing else, I can hunt while the three of you work on saving the People. Could you teach me how to make fire and cook too?”
“How long have you been on Fifth World?”
“I have been here nearly a year. Is that important?”
“Have you spent time on First World recently?”
“I have spent most of my life on First World. Only the first decade of my life was spent on Second World. I came here from Fourth World, but I was on First World until a moon before that. Is that useful?”
“You’re familiar with current events on First World. That could be incredibly useful.”
“Is it useful enough that Nightraven and Caintigern will not want to kill me?”
“It had better be and I will certainly argue that it is. I only hope they’ll listen to me.”
“We will work to ensure that they do.”
“That we will. As soon as you’re done eating, I’ll take you hunting.”
“But you have much meat left,” Winter’s Dream protested.
“The best time to hunt for more food is while you still have some,” Iain said. “It goes along with the best time to plan for an emergency being before that emergency is taking place.”
“Why is it that what you said makes perfect sense but I had never considered it before?”
“Nobody can consider everything. Now, eat up.”
Winter’s Dream went back to stuffing food into her mouth.
***
“It could be painful,” Iain warned. “Even for you.”
“My lord,” Julia said, “I have dreamed of this since I was a child. My sister thresholded and I was incredibly jealous of her. I prayed for the same to happen to me and it did not. It is why I went to Sanctuary in the first place.” She stood straight and still. “I am honored that you took time out of your schedule to research how to give me my dream and let me take my place at your side as a full and equal member of your undead harem. I would endure being broken down into my constituent molecules and reassembled if that is what this requires.” She smiled slowly. “Talyl, Sintree and the other drow of the harem all are incredibly jealous of me and want this too. Considering the arrogance that is one of the hallmarks of the drow race, watching them be jealous of a human has been incredibly amusing.”
“You know I will do this to them too.”
“Yes, my lord, but you grant me this first. I am senior and it is my right. But honestly, even if you made me be last in this, I would still be honored that you are willing to do what you have for others and grant me my one true wish.”
Iain nodded. “You have been very useful to me as a human, whether you understand that or not. Because I will need that in the future, I decided on a pokegirl that is very near human, so you may masquerade as one when necessary.”
“You will do the same for the drow,” Julia said. “Making them look less like drow would destroy their utility in your plans for Guallidurth. Will you make them the same breed that you will make me?”
“I considered that and, finally, decided against it. I will make all of them the same breed, but you will become something else. The process may cause you to combust while the transformation is taking place, so you may wish to undress to save your clothing and gear.”
Julia began stripping, folding her clothes neatly and placing them in a pile to the side. “Thank you, my lord, for allowing me to remain unique in your harem.”
Iain chuckled. “You’d accept if I made you just like the drow but you’d be happier if you were unique?”
Julia smiled. “I have been a pokegirl at heart for most of my life. I wish to remain unique and, therefore, special for you, unlike the myriad Dragonesses or the half a dozen drow.” Her eyes sparkled eagerly. “What am I going to become?”
Iain held out his hand and she grabbed it. “Mazouku,” he said as she exploded into light. Unlike with a normal evolution, as the light grew brighter, Iain felt heat as well, rising until it was almost unbearable. Then it faded away, along with the light.
Julia looked unchanged, except for the fact that her hair was now a honey blond. “Even as a lich,” she whispered, “I feel stronger and more vital. I look forward to learning about my new status as a Mazouku.” She grinned. “Thank you, my lord.”
“This want was so strong that it was almost a need,” Iain replied. “It was my pleasure to find a way to give it to you.”
“Did it force you to spend too much time studying necromancy? I know you hated it in the beginning and you have been uncommunicative on how you feel about it today.”
“I am a necromancer. It is as much a part of me as being a dragon. I accept it and cherish it lest it overwhelm me. Besides, it lets me give people like you certain gifts.”
“And I appreciate this gift more than I will ever be able to say, my lord. May I inquire as to what you will turn the drow into?”
“I’ve decided to make all of them into Neo Iczel.”
Julia looked thoughtful. “Is it possible to make drow even more arrogant than they are?” She laughed. “Of course it is. As Neos, they will be very useful in the missions in Guallidurth while still looking completely unremarkable. It is a good choice for them, my lord. When will you transform them?”
“I’ll give you some time to adapt before I do anything with them. After all, you’re the first and you’ll have to work with them to help them adapt to the changes that are coming.”
“I will go to Eirian and request she place me in an intensive training program so that I can master my abilities. The drow had to be smacked down when they first became liches until they accepted that we were better mages than they were. I suspect they will have to be crushed again once they are Neo Iczel. They will be stronger than I am, but I will immediately begin high gravity training to compensate.”
“Just remember that you’re not doing this alone. The rest of the harem will help work with them as well as with you.”
“Yes, my lord. I will keep that in mind.” She picked up her clothes and began dressing. “I will go to Eirian immediately. Does she know what you have done with me?”
“She doesn’t know it’s done, but yes.”
“I am informing her now.” She paused dressing, wearing only a shirt. “My lord, may I have a hug?”
Iain hugged her. “Of course.”
Julia relaxed against him for a moment. “I have never liked men as sexual partners,” she said. She stepped away from him and out of his arms. “Even so, I believe that I could have been happy as your pokegirl.”
“If you’d joined my harem while you were alive, I’d have done whatever was necessary to help you find that happiness.”
“Yes, my lord.” She smiled. “Just like you are doing now.”
He laughed.
***
Winter’s Dream’s wings flared as she landed hard behind the herbivore and latched onto it with the claws of both forefeet before it could react. It screamed once as her claws sank deeply into the body before going limp. Winter’s Dream launched herself into the air and headed for where Iain’s base was.
Overhead, Iain turned to follow her. He watched as Winter’s Dream landed in front of a pile of wood that had been prepared beforehand. She’d been carrying the body in a death’s grip impaled on her claws and she discovered that it was stuck to her talons as she tried to drop it. He fought not to laugh as she finally managed to scrape it off her claws by stepping on it with one of her hind feet to hold it down as she jerked her claws free. Her glance up at him suggested she knew what was happening anyway.
She held out her right forefoot and a talon burst into flames. She shoved it into the base of the wood pile and blew gently on it until the tinder had caught. After making sure that the fire wasn’t going to go out, she carefully drove a spit through the herbivore and settled it onto the sticks to hold it over the fire.
“Well done,” Iain said as he landed nearby. “You’re good enough at hunting now that you shouldn’t have to worry about having to decide between prostituting yourself or starving. You still need to work on snatching an animal from the ground as you fly by overhead, but you’ve got enough of the basics down that you’ll survive while you work on your other skills.” He shifted to his elf form. “And later we’ll work on how to skin and clean a kill in case you want to do more complicated things with it.”
“I thought I knew how to hunt before I came here,” she said as she watched the flames licking at the herbivore. “I never considered that the meat animals we hunted had been bred to be placid and slow.” She looked over at him. “You have been very kind to teach me how to hunt and safely make fire.”
“I had help learning how to hunt properly and it didn’t always go as well as I wanted it to.” He chuckled at a memory of catching only rabbit fur in his mouth. “It’s only fair that I do that for you in return.”
“Fairness is not something that most of the People consider,” Winter’s Dream noted as she shifted to her human form.
“I think you’ve already realized I’m probably not like most of the drakes you’ve encountered before.”
“You are not like most of the People, be they drakes or dragonesses,” Winter’s Dream corrected him. She looked at him shrewdly. “You know our customs but they do not seem to come naturally to you. You must have spent a great deal of time in these other universes, perhaps longer than you spent among the People.”
Iain eyed her. “You didn’t act like a dragoness normally does when you arrived here. You didn’t just try to eat my food or force your attentions on me to get some food or for any other reason. You waited and you were relatively polite. Because of this, I decided that I didn’t have to try and hide what I am normally like.”
“What would you have done if I had acted like how you think a dragoness normally behaves and eaten all of your food?”
“You’d have gotten very sleepy and quickly fallen asleep. When you’d woken up in the morning it would have been to find me gone. And it is very unlikely that you’d have ever managed to track me down again.”
Winter’s Dream laughed. “You are very cunning. I am certain that you would have relocated to somewhere very far from here to make it impossible to locate you. Has the society of the People changed so much that all of the drakes from the future are like you?”
“From what I understand, up until the destruction of the People as a race, not much had changed in the relationship between drakes and dragonesses. I’m used to being much freer than a drake is and I really don’t like having that freedom circumscribed.”
“One of the reasons I came here was because I was tired of the society of the People. All of the maneuvering, posturing and political games,” she shook her head. “I’d never truly liked them and, one day, I realized just how stupid and limiting they were, not just for me but for the entire society of the People. I knew the dragonesses would never listen to me since what I would be saying went against their deepest held beliefs and so I resolved to leave their society behind and live a life of solitude here on what you call Fifth World. Will this world be colonized by the People one day?”
“Several thousand years in the future, yes.”
“I’m glad they will not be here tomorrow.” She looked at him. “I can hunt now. I can also cook. I want to help you and these two dragonesses in your mission to help the People avoid extinction.” She looked at him regally. “I want to talk to them.”
“I probably need to deal with this now,” he muttered. A gate opened to the side. “Let me go and let them know you’re going to be visiting. I’ll come back and get you. Please wait here.”
She was staring at the gate. “You can open gates. You are much more skilled in magic than I thought you were. I cannot open gates.”
Iain grinned. “I’m overtrained. I’ll be right back.”
“I will wait.”
“Thank you.” Iain stepped through the gate. Nightraven and Caintigern were where he had left them. “Hello,” he said. “I’ve been gone for little more than a week. There’s been a complication, but I think that in the long run it may end up helping to improve our chances of success, if you will allow it.”
Nightraven eyed him curiously. “What is this complication?”
“It turns out that there are some of the People on Fifth World. One of them has approached me and wants to help us with our mission. I think her help could be useful.”
“Of course it is a dragoness,” Nightraven said. “Have you bred her yet?”
“We haven’t had sex,” Iain said flatly. “I told her about the two of you the first time we met. She probably suspects that one of you has claimed me and, after her bad experiences over her library, she doesn’t want to end up dead.” He looked at Nightraven. “The interesting thing is that you know her, having met her when you were very young. It’s Winter’s Dream.”
Nightraven’s eyes went wide. “That cannot be. She went to a different universe to continue her studies.”
“She says she instead decided to come to Fifth World to live a life of solitude for her studies. I think she did a ranged teleport to the atmosphere of Fifth World while looking at the planet through a telescope so she could see where she was trying to go.”
“That’s insane,” Nightraven said quietly. “The odds of success are miniscule.”
Iain nodded. “That was pretty much my reaction too, although I didn’t say so to her. She says she came out too high in the atmosphere for her wings to generate lift and she almost crashed before she could get control. If that’s how dragons are getting to Fifth World, there can’t be many of them who made it successfully. She knows of seven other People, including one drake who makes her have sex with him for food. When I met her, she wasn’t much of a hunter. I’ve taught her more about it and she should be able to feed herself if she has to. And you’ve read the information on the problems with the vegetation, so she couldn’t easily graze.”
“How can she be useful,” Caintigern asked.
“She was on First World less than a year ago. She has information on the current situation there. She wants to talk to the two of you. I suspect she wants to enlist your aid in getting her library back.”
“What happened to it,” Nightraven asked.
“She set it up and, as soon as she was done, a pair of dragonesses drove her out of it and claimed it for themselves.”
“Was her library in the collection of the People that you assembled,” Caintigern asked.
“I did a detailed search of it when Nightraven asked me for any references to Winter’s Dream. Her library was not in it.”
“Then we will have to liberate it so that we can add it,” Nightraven announced. “Did she have any useful information?”
“Whatever time I ended up in, according to her memories of meeting you,” Iain replied, “you should still be too young to go off looking for Winter’s Dream yet.”
Nightraven looked pleased. “She remembered me?”
Iain wasn’t going to hurt her with the details. “She did. Now she wants to talk to you two. I’d suggest you do it here. This Ark can be neutral ground for your meeting since nobody lives here full time. I want to grant her safe passage in case you refuse her request to help. That means you’ll let her return to Fifth World if so.”
“And if we refuse?” Caintigern eyed him curiously. “What will you do then.”
“Then I won’t bring her here and you can talk to her on Fifth World.”
“If we grant it and then kill her here,” Nightraven said quietly, “you would try to protect her, wouldn’t you?”
“If I tell her she has safe passage, I am honor bound to do my best to ensure her safe passage.”
“We could grant her safe passage and then go to Fifth World and kill her,” Caintigern noted.
“You can. I can’t stop that. All I ask is that if I bring her here, you allow her to return to Fifth World unharmed. I am not asking for a permanent moratorium on killing her. I did check, however, and she is not part of Blacktooth’s bloodline. Her help could be invaluable.”
“I will grant your request of safe passage for Winter’s Dream,” Caintigern said. She looked at Nightraven. “Will you?”
Nightraven looked curiously at Iain. “Is she a front line combatant?”
“Not compared to you or Caintigern. She was slowly starving when we met because she hadn’t considered that hunting wild creatures was very different than hunting the carefully bred animals on the preserves the People maintain. And her level of magic learning is more basic than I expected. If that’s customary for the People, it helps to explain how the Royal line was overcome so quickly.”
“Not many of the People are of the same caliber of wizard that I or Caintigern is,” Nightraven said. “Or you. I will grant her safe passage. She probably wants you as a mate.”
“She hasn’t said or done anything to suggest any desires in that direction,” Iain replied. “But I’m still unfamiliar with how subtle a dragoness could be if she wanted to.”
“Would you be willing to consider her as such if we ask you to?”
“Considering how jealous you two are of each other I’d have some questions about why you wanted me to do something like that. In the end, I’d be willing to consider it if it would help the mission.”
“You said she was slowly starving,” Caintigern said thoughtfully. “Has she recovered from that privation yet?”
“She’s had decent meals for several days. She hasn’t gorged on anything like you did when we first met.”
“Bring her here. We will all hunt and talk while we do so.”
Iain looked at Nightraven. “You have not granted her safe passage yet.”
She nodded. “I have not. I will grant her the safe passage you are requesting for her.”
“Thank you. I’ll be right back.” He stepped through the gate. Only a few seconds had passed on this side and Winter’s Dream hadn’t moved. “They want you to come to where they are. It’s not part of their territory or mine and so can be considered neutral ground. There, they want to take you hunting so you can feed to your heart’s content while we all talk.”
Winter’s Dream stood. “What about my meal here?”
“We will be gone about the same time I just was, so it won’t have cooked yet.”
She nodded. “How do I address them?”
“Use their names with no honorifics. They will do the same thing to you.”
“Am I to be granted safe passage?”
“They both said that you were.”
“I am nervous about this.”
Iain chuckled. “That show’s you’re intelligent. I was terrified when I first met Nightraven.”
“What about,” she frowned, “Caintigern?”
“She used a capture spell to draw me to her after she thought I’d stolen something of hers. I hadn’t, but I had to prove it to her satisfaction. I was still terrified during our meeting.”
“Which of them is your breeding partner?”
“Both of them.”
“They are sharing you? That’s unusual, but not unprecedented.” She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I believe I am ready.”
Iain motioned towards the gate. “After you. Just relax and be yourself.”
Winter’s Dream stepped through the gate, followed closely by Iain.
He exited the gate to find the three dragonesses standing and facing each other in a rough triangle. He stepped into the middle of the group as the gate closed and gestured towards each in turn. “Nightraven. Caintigern. Winter’s Dream.” He smiled and tapped himself in the chest. “Iain.”
“No sane drake would place himself between three dragonesses meeting for the first time,” Nightraven observed. “But then you are not sane, not as the People measure sanity.”
“If being me makes me insane according to the People,” Iain said as his smile widened. “It is a title I bear with pride.”
Caintigern chuckled. “That is not surprising. Have you explained to Winter’s Dream where we are?”
“Just that it’s neutral ground.”
“This place is a creation by a dead race called humans. It is filled with a variety of herbivores and carnivores, some of which are much larger than anything you have seen before. Not even the Royal preserves have creatures like those that can be found here. Some of them will attack even us in our true forms. We will hunt so that you may gorge yourself. Once you are full, I will teach you a new magical technique that will allow you to use that food to recover instantly from your lack of sufficient diet. During this and afterwards, we will talk about whether or not we can work together.” She looked at Iain. “We will not go near the wyverns and you will not trick her as you did me.”
Iain chuckled. “Of course. I don’t think she wants the same challenge you insisted on getting. Besides, there aren’t any wyverns here.”
Caintigern also chuckled. “I did ask for one and you did surprise me with them.” She turned to Winter’s Dream. “All of the vegetation and the creatures here are completely edible, unlike on Fifth World. Let us hunt and you can eat your fill of them while we talk. Do not be concerned about killing all of the food animals in a particular location. As I said this is a creation and it is designed to replace animals that are removed almost as fast as we can remove them. Be warned that the herbivores, for the most part, will fight back almost as violently and as capably as the predators, especially if they have horns or spikes anywhere on their bodies.”
“How do I successfully hunt them then? I am unused to such prey.”
Nightraven looked at him. “Iain, when Winter’s Dream shows interest in a particular species of prey, would you show her the best way to hunt it without being severely harmed?”
“I will. If those are the conditions, I suggest we avoid Giganotosaurus, Titanosaurs or any of the Tyrannosaur family.”
“I agree. We will not hunt them today.”
Iain looked thoughtful. “We’re on an Island, so we’ll head south and start our hunt on the plateau below the swamp. There are usually trikes, turtles, para and some Phiomia with raptors and an occasional Carnotaurus or Therizinosaur. And the usual plethora of dodos and Dilophosaurus.”
“That sounds excellent. Please lead the way.”
***
Winter’s Dream had gorged until her stomach was distended. Now the three dragonesses rested on a large flat rock with their wings spread to absorb the sunlight while Iain kept watch nearby.
“I asked Iain which of you was he breeding,” Winter’s Dream said. “He said that you were sharing him. Is that the truth?”
“It is,” Nightraven replied.
“Then I am curious as to why you and she spent our time pointing out how well he hunts and provides. Are you unhappy with him?”
“We are not,” Caintigern shifted her head to look at Iain briefly, who glanced back at her for a second. His body language was neutral, so she returned her attention to their guest. “You seek to work with us. We have discussed this and decided that you should have a vested interest in the survival of our group if you do. A mate and children would provide that interest.”
“I have decided not to have children,” Winter’s Dream said firmly.
“She doesn’t approve of the society of the People,” Iain said while alertly monitoring the area around them. They were using Giga Mountain on the northeast side of the Island, where rexes and allosaurs were relatively common. “It’s why she went to Fifth World in the first place.”
“Iain is not a typical drake,” Nightraven noted. “He has some requirements before he will consider a relationship with a dragoness. When we have children, our drakes will not be sent to a creche and he will be involved with the raising of all the children, together, as it was before we became civilized.”
“I would say that we never became civilized,” Winter’s Dream stated flatly. “I had often thought that some drakes could be as capable as the best of us and Iain has shown that to be true. It only took him leaving our society to prove my theory correct.”
“Iain is as he is because he has never been part of our society,” Nightraven said. “He was not born one of the People. He was transformed into one of us, but you are correct that he is more powerful than many dragonesses will ever be, even in the Royal bloodline. He rejects our society.”
“With good reason,” Iain said.
“The way you look at the universe, you are correct,” Caintigern said. “He has other attachments, including children, with women who are not of the People.”
“If you can accept them being part of his life,” Winter’s Dream said, “so can I. If I decide that he is acceptable and he accepts me if I approach him.”
“He will,” Nightraven said confidently. “Even now he wants to breed you.”
Winter’s Dream lifted her head and turned to regard Iain, who shrugged and nodded. “I don’t like you well enough to want children with you, but, yeah, sex, sure.”
“The correct response to him is ‘you are such a drake’,” Caintigern said amusedly. “His other women say that to him, as they know he is a drake.”
“I offered to have sex with you for food when I met you and you turned me down.” Winter’s Dream sounded slightly confused. “Yet you want to have sex with me now?”
“I was interested in you then,” Iain admitted. “But I don’t do rape and I don’t coerce women into having sex with me. It’s rude and it’s unethical. I want a woman to want to have sex with me when she does, just as a drake should want to have sex with a dragoness before he does.”
Winter’s Dream watched him for several seconds. “You will need to be able to hide all of that if you expect to spend any time among the People. We will have to work with you to teach you how to behave properly in order to keep you safe.”
“I know how to behave among the People,” Iain said quietly.
“Knowing and doing are not the same thing,” Winter’s Dream replied. “You should practice behaving correctly so as to be allowed to approach the Queen.”
“Have you decided that you agree with us and will have Iain as your drake,” Nightraven asked. “You certainly sound like you have.”
“He is an impressive drake and two members of the Royal bloodline, one the Queen, have invited me to do so. He has expressed an interest in me as well. While I have not yet decided to have children until I see more of what his personality is like, I am willing to spend time with him and with you to see if I can be persuaded. After all, as he has pointed out during a discussion we had a few days ago, the drive to reproduce is a very powerful one.”
Caintigern nodded and rose to pad her way towards Winter’s Dream. “Now that you have fed sufficiently, I will teach you how to rejuvenate your body from your recent starvation. You will have to train with us if you truly wish to aid us in our plans and you will need to be at full strength in order to do so properly.”
Winter’s Dream nodded enthusiastically. “Teach me!”
***
Nejiko and Kozakura appeared outside the house on Sado Island and released hands. They both looked around curiously. “Lady,” Nejiko said. Kozakura looked back at her and the Phoenix pointed behind the house. “There.”
Kozakura moved to where she could see a redheaded man who was on the other side of one of the overly wide irrigation channels, kneeling and examining a wheat plant. She headed for the bridge over the channel, followed by Nejiko.
The man looked up at her footfalls on the bridge and stood as she stopped in front of him. “Are you a farmer?”
He shook his head. “Not at all. I can tell that the kernels smell healthy, but that’s unsurprising considering that this is Grey land.” He smiled, carefully not showing his teeth. “I am Keanellos.”
“I am Kozakura and this is Nejiko.” Her ears flicked. “Mother wanted me to meet you.”
“It only makes sense as Father wanted me to meet you and Nejiko.”
Kozakura looked around. “Where is the other one?”
“Other one?”
“Major Erhorn,” Nejiko supplied. “Lady Kasumi said he is your aide.”
Keanellos looked puzzled for a second before nodding, “I’m afraid she misunderstood our relationship. Erhorn is my friend and my aide, but he remained in the military when I left it and he’s been promoted and given the command he deserves. He is not my battle sister like you are for Kozakura.”
“Battle sister,” Nejiko said thoughtfully. She smiled at Kozakura. “I like that better than maid.”
“I do too,” Kozakura smiled back at her. Her smile vanished as she returned her attention to Keanellos. “Mother said that you were told about me because Iain-sama wanted you to be interested in me. Why did he do that?”
“Dri and I had just ended our relationship and I was pretty despondent over it. Father has always made himself available to me if I needed someone to talk to and, due to the nature of my military career, I had few friends. He understood how upset I was and dropped everything to spend some time with me. I’ve never told him how much I appreciated his doing that.”
Kozakura’s ears flicked. “Who is Dri?”
“Drianthenkrelash Brightwing was my mate for forty years and the mother of my two children. We parted on good relations and we’re still friends but,” he shrugged. “She was my first serious relationship and it hurt when it ended.”
“I see,” Kozakura said. “But that doesn’t explain why he told you about me.”
“I asked him if he knew of a woman, that he wasn’t involved with, who was the kind of woman that I could spend the rest of my life with. He told me about you and Nejiko.”
Nejiko looked surprised. “He told you about me too?”
“You and Kozakura are battle sisters. You share a life together. A relationship with one of you is a relationship with both of you. For that reason, Father told me about the two of you.” He looked from Nejiko to Kozakura. “Have I misunderstood your relationship?”
The two women exchanged a look. “No,” Kozakura said, “but most people do not understand us as well as you seem to. They see Nejiko as an adjunct to the Princess Kozakura and nothing more. I hadn’t realized that Iain-sama had known that. I should have. He can be frighteningly perceptive.”
“We are not equals,” Nejiko added. “She is my lady and I am her servant.”
“Battle sisters are seldom equals,” Keanellos said. “One leads and the other follows, but they are still sisters and they live life together. Sometimes, as in your case, one is nobility and the other was assigned or given to her when they were young so they would grow up together. It does not change the fact that you are battle sisters, who fight together, marry together and become a single family to raise their children together.”
“Is this something that is common where you are from?”
“It’s not common and it’s not uncommon either. As I spent most of my life in the military, I saw it a lot more than a civilian would. It is much more prevalent in the military than it is in the civilian world.”
“Are there are lot of,” Kozakura paused, “I think they would be called battle brothers. Are there many of them?”
“They are incredibly rare. Men are encouraged to join with women, not with other men. The circumstances for men are very different, like the proportion of females to males on One if the population of pokegirls is combined with the population of the other human women when compared to the population of men. There are four elven women for every elven man.”
“You are more aware of the situation on my world than I thought you would be after Mother told me about your past and where you came from,” Kozakura said.
“One of the jobs I enjoyed when I was in the military was teaching strategy and tactics,” Keanellos smiled broadly. “For both, information is crucial before proper decisions can be considered, much less made. Father understands this and we spoke about it in letters for a few years before I met Kasumi. It was a general overview of the worlds involved and not a detailed dissection of your life. I know about you in only the same generalities that you might know about me. Father didn’t offer more and I didn’t want to know more.”
“Why? I would want to know everything about you that I could, were our positions reversed.”
“I am a prince, once the crown prince and a general as well as a duke. You are a princess and were briefly queen and regent. Nejiko is your battle sister. All of us are incredibly proud persons. To know as much about you as I could possibly learn would be prudent and logical, but only if I intended to treat you as an opponent. You are very intelligent and you’d quickly realize it if I did know so much about you, no matter how I tried to hide it. It would make any developing relationship we might have much more adversarial and that is that last thing I want. So I decided to meet you with as little knowledge about you as you have about me, so that we are on as equal terms as possible.”
“You were once a duke?”
“I was.”
“Why do you no longer have that title?”
“I could not oversee my lands as they needed. My son could and he loved the duchy, its land and its people. I gave him the lands and the title so that he could take care of it properly.”
“You mentioned two children,” Nejiko said.
“My other son is a squadron commander in the Imperial Elven Armada,” Keanellos replied. “His squadron is assigned to duty in another crystal sphere, or solar system, with a world in it called Krynn. He’s supposed to send me some maps and historical books, but that takes a lot longer to arrive than magical letters do.”
“We have met,” Kozakura said thoughtfully. “What do we do now? If you were a kami, we would fight to see if you are strong enough.”
“I am a swordsman and mage, just like you are and Nejiko is,” Keanellos replied. “I thought we’d do something a little different.”
“What do you mean?”
“When I am trying to weld together officers, I arrange for them to do a team building exercise as a group. The best thing, I have discovered, is not to have them do something that they all do well or that only some of them know how to do well. Instead, I’ve found it’s better to have them do something that none of them know how to do well or, best of all, none of them have ever done. To that end, I have a question for you. Do either of you know anything about sailboats?”
Kozakura’s ears flicked. “I do not, and neither does Nejiko.”
“Neither do I, which is why I signed us up for sailing lessons in two hours. I will admit that I spoke to Kasumi about this beforehand and she had some clothes delivered for all of us that are supposed to be appropriate for spending time on the sea. They were in boxes made of very thin sheets of wood or, perhaps, thick sheets of paper. It was rather odd.” He shrugged. “Are you willing to do this?”
Kozakura looked at Nejiko, who nodded slightly. “Yes, we are. Where are these boxes so we can find out what my mother sent us?”
Keanellos gestured towards the farmhouse. “This way.”
***
Iain stood and looked out over the smoldering forest of blue green trees. There were two new clearings in the heavy woods, each surrounded by shattered trees and each with a large crater in the center from which the smoke was issuing. He looked to his right at Winter’s Dawn. She was staring, wide eyed, at the craters. He could smell the fear from her and reached out. She jumped when he touched her on the shoulder. “Would you like a hug?”
“What would a hug do,” she asked in a small voice.
“It would make you feel warm and protected.”
Winter’s Dawn looked at the craters again “I would like that very much right now.”
Iain wrapped her up in his arms, noting how tense she was. “Close your eyes and press your nose against my neck. Now breathe.” She did so and slowly relaxed against him.
There was a crunch of vegetation as Caintigern landed nearby and folded up her wings. “Is she well?”
“Of the four of us, she has the least experience with sudden violent death,” Iain said quietly. “While I don’t have a problem with the overkill you and Nightraven employed against the sisters who stole her library, it was pretty overwhelming, even from here.”
Iain had flown by and dropped off a large dead predator outside Winter’s Dream’s library as an obvious courting gift. The sisters had come out to inspect it and he had simply flown away. After a quick discussion, they’d followed. He’d led them to where Nightraven and Caintigern had been lying in wait and they’d been ambushed. The fight had been extremely brief and the sisters, who were now entombed in the two craters, hadn’t even known they were under attack before they were dead.
“We are close enough to the library that an extended fight could have caused it damage,” Caintigern said.
“I am grateful for your acting swiftly to protect it,” Winter’s Dream lifted her head and looked at Caintigern. “I am not a Royal and I am still unused to this kind of fighting. I am sorry that I am weak.”
“Nobody who I’d want to ever be around my children starts out used to something like this,” Iain said gently. “You’re not weak. You’re normal. We’re the unusual ones; me and her and Nightraven.” He gave her a rueful smile. “We are the monsters.”
“I will learn how to be a monster too,” Winter’s Dawn said firmly.
“I don’t doubt that you will,” Iain said with a hint of sadness. “With us guiding you, how could you do otherwise?”
“You do not want me to be like you?”
“You are a scholar. I am a monstrous, remorseless killer. The universe needs scholars more than it needs monstrous killers,” Iain replied. “The People need scholars much more than they need monstrous killers. The People will always need scholars to guide it and educate it. It’s just that right now the People need monstrous killers. They need us, even if they’re not aware that they do.”
Winter’s Dream pushed gently away from him. “I enjoyed the hug.”
“Surprisingly enough, I haven’t yet run out of them so you can come get more later.”
“His hugs are remarkable,” Caintigern said as she carefully sat down and furled her wings. “We will next inventory your library to ensure it has not been tampered with. Nightraven has gone ahead.”
Winter’s Dawn stepped away from Iain far enough to shift and took to the air. “I will meet you there,” she called as she flew straight for her library.
“You are thoughtful, my mate and have been for a few days,” Caintigern observed quietly. “That usually presages events that should be unpleasant for our enemies.”
“I’ve been pondering changes and options. Instead of waiting to grow an infrastructure here, I think it would be easier to use the Ark we are using as a jumping off point to get to here. I can make the satellites we’re going to need there a lot faster than I can on Fifth World and then gate them here. Additionally, there’s a lot more food there and I can set up plots for veggies if we want some variety in our diet. It’ll mean we don’t have to announce our presence when we hunt out the region. Someone passing through won’t see that all the animals are missing and get suspicious.”
“How many of the People have you found with your survey so far?”
“Not counting us, I have located another seventy four of the People scattered around the planet.” Iain rubbed his eyes. “On a world where the plants are mostly inedible so the People have to primarily be surface predators and the animals, which haven’t evolved around dragons, aren’t being husbanded, that’s a lot of pressure on the local environment. And then you must consider that most of the People have to hunt in their true form since they’re not trained how to hunt as bipeds. If they hunt as dragons, they’ll eat in that form too. They eat a lot more in their dragon form than they would in their bipedal form and I’m not sure there’s enough prey animals to support the People long term. Few of them will take up fishing since most of them have no skills in that regard. Nine of the People are males and so undoubtedly some of them are probably having children, which makes things even worse.”
“Would moving to Sixth World be better?”
Iain shook his head. “While the oceans under the glaciers stay unfrozen and are full of animals, the plant situation is even worse and fishing is time consuming. Even when they had gate access to it, the People never lived there in the numbers that they do on the first four worlds, or even here once they imported edible plants from the other worlds of the People. We could move to Sixth World and use my gate idea there.” He looked thoughtful. “It’s only visible from Fifth World, so there shouldn’t be any of the People there, but still, I think we can still use this world for our base. I doubt anyone can stand up to any of us except Winter’s Dream and her not for long.”
“She needs a twee. It’ll help her out a great deal.”
“I’ll offer her one.”
Iain Grey
Harem
Ninhursag Grey - Elfqueen & maharani
April Grey - Duelist & beta
Dominique Grey - Blessed Archmage
Pandora - Fiendish Archangel
Zareen - Nightmare
Sofia - Ria
Vanessa – Evangelion
Lucifer – Megami Sama
Ganieda – Snugglebunny Splice
Heather - Elfqueen
Marguerite – Unicorn
Scheherazade – Dread Wolf
Irena – Sanctuary Goth
Lynn – Dire Wolf
Rosemary – Mistoffeles
Dianthus – Elfqueen
Candace – Nurse Joy (kami)
Bellona – Dragonqueen
Elizabeth – Vampire
Matilda - White Tigress
Sorrel - Armsmistress
Outer Clan
Golden Cloud – equine unicorn
Arianrhod -Fey Goblin Female
Satellite Clan
74 male Goblins
89 female Goblins
Queendom / Outer Clan
1048 Elves & Elfqueens
Dionne - Elfqueen
Adrianna - Elfqueen
Heltu - Wet Queen
14 Wet Elves
Dead Harem
Eirian - Silver Dragoness
Aurum - Gold Dragoness
Skye - Blue Dragoness
Emerald - Green Dragoness
Beryl - Red Dragoness
Julia - human
Ling - Cheetit
Liadan - Twau
Natalie - Blazicunt
Maria – Slutton
Alabaster – Dragoness (white)
Onyx – Dragoness (black)
Lapis – Dragoness (blue)
Garnet – Dragoness (red)
Iolite – Dragoness (purple)
Malachite – Dragoness (green with white swirls)
Viersunuth great wyrm blue true dragoness
Talyl – drow commoner
Zarza – drow commoner
Sabrae – drow commoner
Sintree – drow commoner
Alyfaen Dinaen – drow, matron of House Dinaen
Phaerxae Dinaen – drow, former matron of House Dinaen, mother of Alyfaen
Tadalareth – drow drageloth, daughter of Alyfaen, stolen by House Janaleth
Mother Children
Vanessa
Myrna (Age 4)
Saoirse
April
Dorothy: Duelist (Age 3)
Meara: Duelist
Regan: Duelist
Lucifer
Olivia: Megami Sama (Age 6)
Seraphina: Megami Sama
Miram: Angel (Age 5)
Zareen:
Caltha: Nightmare (Age 0)
Kim: Nightmare
Xanthe: Nightmare
Epona: Nightmare
Philippa: Nightmare
Nott: Nightmare
Nyx: Nightmare
Sofia
Anna: Ria
Esmerelda: Ria
Monica Chambers
James: Jamie Harris kid (Age 2)