Grey Chronicles
Twenty Three
(10/16/08 1100 Barton House, Texas League)
Iain stretched slowly, listening for things popping in his joints. Thanks to the changes he’d made to his body he healed inhumanly quick, which was great for recovering from April’s training sessions. Unfortunately, April had figured this out too and made him train more often and harder to take advantage of his new resiliency. She was compassionate and loving in bed, but on the training field she took everything she knew about a person and used it against them. And if someone screwed up, they got hurt. Screw up badly and get hurt badly.
Her one saving grace that kept some of the others from actively plotting her death was the fact that she put together scenarios that worked her just as hard and hurt her just as badly when she made a major mistake.
Canaan gave him a sympathetic glance and pulled two omega fruit from the satchel at her side. She tossed him one and summoned a knife sized energy blade to begin peeling hers. Iain wasn’t happy to find he was swaying slightly. He forced himself to stand still as he fought the urge to back away from the glittering line of energy. He’d developed something of a phobia about them after his injury and was trying to work through it. That and it made his nightmares especially bad.
He’d always thought that getting hit with an energy blade wouldn’t hurt, and for the most part he’d been right. But when it cut through his spine something had made his entire nervous system light up with pain identical to what Aglaii’s Witch had done to him with her spells.
“You ever work things out with April,” Canaan asked without looking up. “Or does she frighten you as much as this technique does?” Her head came around to see him watching her solemnly. “I can’t stay out your head and I wouldn’t want to if I could. Even when you’re in agony you still manage to bring me peace and quiet, remember?”
“What is there to work out? As far as I know, we’re good.”
“I know she offered to go back to shaving you and you turned her down.” She made a show of peering at his beard. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure you’re not shaving.”
“I am trimming it,” he replied loftily. “A neat beard is one thing, but a hobo beard is something entirely different.”
“Is April trimming it?”
“No, she is not. She chose to voluntarily, arbitrarily and unilaterally stop doing something that I looked forward to, and she did it for a reason that I can’t agree with. Her deciding that she’s over it and things can go back to the way they were is all fine and dandy but it isn’t her decision to make anymore. It’s mine.”
“Aren’t you being just a bit juvenile?”
“On the surface it might seem that way, but the decisions she made at that time hurt more than the fucking accident did.” His eyes hardened as he turned to look up into hers. “And if you’d like, we could also discuss how the harem as a whole let me down by not considering how I might feel about her decisions when they decided to enthusiastically support her move and not even let me fucking know about it until Eve popped up with her ‘we’re interchangeable so I can take April’s place in a private activity because she’s giving it up and oh by the way she’s gone walkabout but you have to stay here and we all think this is a great idea so fuck what you might want’.” He said it in one long sentence and his voice became cutting towards the end.
The Splice was the first to break eye contact. “No, I don’t think we need to go there.”
“Didn’t think so.”
Eve was suddenly standing in front of them. “I’m not late, am I?” She looked from his stony expression to Canaan’s cautious one. “What?”
Canaan clamped a hand over Iain’s mouth as he opened it. “Don’t ask questions you don’t really want answered.” She yelped and jerked her hand away. “You bit me!”
“Stick your fingers in my mouth when I’m not willing to play and that is very likely going to be the result every damned time.”
The Splice was staring at her palm. “I’m bleeding. You broke the skin. Swords don’t break my skin. How did you do that?” The wound began closing.
“I’m learning.” He turned to Eve. “I believe you’re supposed to be somewhere?”
She eyed him uncertainly. “Maybe this is a bad time and we should reschedule.”
“Maybe I get to decide that. This isn’t about you, after all. Still, you can refuse and I guess I’ll just have to find someone else or go myself.”
Eve’s eyes narrowed for an instant before relaxing. “You’re right.”
“Look, I’m not the kind of person to inflict my bad mood on a visitor or a guest. She won’t know I’m ticked off unless she’s got some kind of mood reading magic. I’ll get over it faster if you drop it, you know.”
“I know. I do have to ask if we can talk about this later.”
“Talk to Canaan. She knows why I’m annoyed and is more than willing to share what she knows. If I didn’t want any of you to know, I’d make Theodora my therapist. Now, you weren’t late when you arrived here but late is fast approaching.”
The Megami-sama nodded. “I’ll be back in five or so.” She vanished.
Theodora’s mental tone was cautious. I am still learning a lot about social interactions as I grow up so I have a question. In my role as the maharani of your inorganic harem and as your friend, should I have told you what they were planning when I found out about it?
“You have the additional job of keeping an eye on the well being of the clan as a whole. Do you feel that April’s decision helped her?” Canaan raised an eyebrow when he spoke suddenly but quickly realized who he must be talking to and didn’t say anything.
At the time I was unsure but she thought it would help both of you. In hindsight, I believe that separating herself from you was a mistake as she feels even guiltier about the fact that she wasn’t here when you fought the mental construct of Mhodvitnar and also because of how badly her decision first hurt and then angered you. She could not have foreseen it nor could she have done anything about it, but still she feels guilt for not being there when you, as she thinks, needed her.
Iain suppressed a quick spurt of pleasure at the news of April’s pain, but he knew that Theodora must have detected it. A twitch of Canaan’s antennae suggested she had too. “You’ll know next time.”
Indeed I will. I would like to say that I am very lucky that you are my father, Iain, and as your first child I hope to set a high standard for the rest of my siblings to aspire to.
Canaan laughed at Iain’s expression. “I thought you were Ninhursag’s equal and maharani to Iain’s inorganic harem.”
I am, but I am also his daughter in that he is the primary guide that is helping my personality to develop. We are not related, so there is nothing inappropriate in our relationship.
Iain muttered something in a low voice. Canaan’s eyebrows rose. “Who is Woody Allen?”
Before he could say anything Eve appeared again. She was holding Ygerna by the hand and looked mildly irritated. “Would you believe that Princess Branwyn tried to insist that she be brought here too?” Her irritation became a satisfied smirk. “She is not used to being told to, as you sometimes say, pound salt.” She let the Sidhe go. “Ygerna, this is the Barton House in the ruins of Austin, Texas League.”
Ygerna released Enid from her pokeball. The Dragoness immediately took up her post as the Sidhe’s bodyguard. “Where is the house?”
Eve pointed. “It’s buried inside that stand of yew trees. I’ll show you the door and get you a key.”
“Thank you.” Ygerna turned to Iain. “And I wish to thank you for keeping your word to me.”
Canaan snorted. “It’s a shame that you live in a situation where someone doing what he said he would do is worth remarking on.”
A shadow passed over Ygerna’s face and vanished. “Indeed, it is.”
Iain motioned towards his bodyguard. “Ygerna, this is Canaan, a member of my family. Her presence isn’t a commentary on your presence; it’s just that I’m not allowed to be alone.”
“That makes sense as you are their king.” Ygerna eyed Canaan briefly. “I am not familiar with her breed. Is it native to this world?”
“It will be,” the Splice said smugly.
“I don’t understand.”
“I am the only one of my kind.” She patted her flat stomach. “But I am also pregnant and therefore my daughters will be native born Texans.”
Emotions flashed across Ygerna’s face. Iain saw envy, anger and sadness before her face stilled. “Congratulations are in order then. I sympathize with you since I too am the last of my kind. Hopefully one day soon I will add to my race as well.”
Canaan’s antenna twitched. “Technically there is another full blood Sidhe here. It would be the Ygerna who is currently in the Blue League.”
Ygerna’s mouth dropped and her eyes widened. “I know there was suspicion, but I have heard of no proof of her existence. Do you have evidence of her?”
Canaan shrugged. “If Iain says she’s there then she’s there, along with this world’s two villains from your past. Iain says she has a small coterie of human wizards as her Order of Pendragon.”
Ygerna eyed Iain with increased respect. “You have mystical sight?”
“It depends on who you ask. It’s theorized that I either have something like that or I create what I write in my stories.”
“Stories?”
He blinked. “Shikarou didn’t tell you?”
Her mouth twisted. “Shikarou does not tell me much these days.”
Iain was so not going there. “I have written stories about his family and those around him, including you. I know much about all of you, but I don’t tell others and I cannot be mentally probed.” He sighed softly when her eyebrows rose disbelievingly. “You’d like some kind of proof, right?”
“In light of such a claim I think that would be a prudent request.”
Iain considered for a moment. “You are considerably older than anyone here, including Eoghan, knew, and grew up in what later would be called Ireland during the Neolithic period of human development.”
“I am not familiar with that word.”
“When you were growing up, humans used stone weapons and had not yet learned to shape metal.”
She nodded. “This is true, but you could have guessed this. Tell me something that no one here could possibly know.”
Iain hesitated and then shrugged mentally. He might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb. “Your current insistence on Sidhe purity of blood is a trifle hypocritical. In your youth you took a human as a pet and bore a daughter from the union. There is no reason you could not do that today to add to the Sidhe population or even mate with a part blood Sidhe.”
Ygerna was silent for several seconds, watching him with an expression he couldn’t identify. “Your powers are greater than those I have ever seen in any human, including,” she swept a hand to include Canaan, Eve and Enid, “these.”
“Don’t worry; I don’t intend to tell anyone else what I know about you.”
“I would be grateful if you did not.” She cocked her head. “Are you offering to mate with me?”
Canaan burst out laughing. Iain blinked in shock as Eve looked at him curiously. The Megami-sama chuckled. “Difficult, isn’t it?” He glared at her. “He’s torn, Ygerna. Part of him wants to breed you while part of him only wants to be with his family. And since he doesn’t really want to lie to you, he’s not sure how to answer.”
Iain folded his arms. “Millions of years have led to this point and males and females who didn’t want to reproduce don’t and fell out of the line. Males today want to breed and females today want to be bred, but the females don’t want to be bred by just any male. The dance men and women do is how the females try to select which males are worth spending the energy of carrying a child on, but in the end it’s all about that child. And yes, that includes pokegirls.” He smiled briefly. “The men aren’t usually as picky as the women. So, no, I am not offering to sleep with you, but if you ask me I would have to consider your request.”
Ygerna eyed him curiously. “No matter your decision, you would answer honestly?”
“I would.” He realized what she was actually asking. “No, I wouldn’t be like Faelan and string you along for a couple of decades.”
“You say you know much about all of us. Will Faelan ever give me what I want?”
Normally Iain wouldn’t talk about the members of the Wolf family with other people, but he didn’t hesitate. “No. Faelan loves Svetlana and she despises you. He will not.”
“Then why did he let me think that he would?”
Canaan snorted. “You would make a powerful enemy. They wanted to keep you dependent on them.”
“It has worked. I am dependent on them now.”
“You could always leave.” He waved a hand. “This isn’t Ireland but you won’t be persecuted here. You will probably need some help getting started, but we could provide that.”
Ygerna looked skeptical. “Why would you wish to aid me?”
Iain smiled. “Canaan pointed out that Faelan and Shikarou believe you would make a powerful enemy and have tried to make you their vassal. I believe you would make a powerful friend and potential ally. However, most of all I am not a fan of some of the things going on in Haven and the way they’ve been treating you is one of them. But whether or not we become friends, if you’re to move here you’ll need some help getting established since it’s just you and your retainers. I’m willing to provide it.”
“Where would we live?”
“You have a couple of choices. I could lease you some of my land or you could buy land on the edges of my property or pretty much anywhere else in Texas.”
Ygerna made a face. “I have no money.”
“That’s ok. I’d front you the money and you’d repay it. The easiest way would be for you to give me a percentage of your crops at market value. If you don’t have any plans to farm your land, we could do it instead and split every harvest three ways. You’d get part of it to do with as you wished, I’d get part of it as payment for working the land for you and the third portion would be payments for the land until you pay off what it cost me. Then I’d deed the land over to you.”
She frowned. “If it is your land and your people working it, why give me anything?”
“You raise a valid point, Ygerna, but I am not asking you to leave Haven just to be dependent on me instead. It’s not charity. You’d be protecting my land for me from ferals and thieves. I think you’d deserve to be paid for it.”
“That is unexpectedly generous, Iain.”
“I’m planning for the future. We will be living here for the foreseeable future and having neighbors who are friends would be a good thing. And having neighbors who don’t die of old age every fifty years would be nice too.”
Ygerna’s mouth tightened. “I have no future in Haven that gives me what I truly want. I must make preparations before I am ready to lead my people from Shikarou’s kingdom, but I accept your offer now. I am weary of living on the sufferance of others and I desire to live on land that I will eventually own. I would like that land to be adjoining yours if at all possible.”
He nodded. “You’ll need to come back before you’re ready to leave so we can take a tour of my borders and you can decide what land you want to purchase. Our borders include lake property, rivers, plains and forest and a couple thousand acres would probably be a good amount to start with.”
“In the meantime,” Canaan said firmly, “I will be providing you with information on the ways you might wish to align yourself with us. Becoming satellite clan could prove beneficial and wouldn’t make you give up your sovereignty over your own people.”
“I’ll listen to what you have to say, Canaan,” the Sidhe replied, “but that’s for later. I am here today to see the wonders of Iain’s library. I’ve been looking forward to this since I found out about it. Business can wait.”
***
(10/25/08 1315 Grey Ranch, Texas League)
Ninhursag watched with no small pleasure as Zareen and Raquel pulled the wagon towards the mill. Patterned after the Conestoga wagons that pulled freight across the United States before the railroad became widely distributed, it was six meters long, three and a half meters tall and one and a half meters wide, giving it an internal volume of thirty one and a half cubic meters. It rode on strong leaf springs that floated the body on four spoked wheels. The front wheels were smaller than the rear ones, but all four averaged a meter and a half in diameter and the wagon could carry eight tonnes of cargo over unimproved terrain.
Currently it was full of wheat that was destined to become flour in the unifine mill they’d set up. The flour they didn’t need would be shipped to the factor stores in Port Arthur and Austin for sale in ten kilogram sacks.
Ninhursag turned to the group watching her. It was composed of four Elfqueens and ten Elves, none of whom were part of the clan. “That takes care of the wheat. We’ll move on to the carrots and onions next.” Ellen Thompson had contacted farms around Austin and offered, for a nominal fee, to send their Elf pokegirls to the Grey Ranch to learn how to get the most out of their plant growing abilities. Ninhursag agreed with Iain that even if it was building competition they’d have to face someday, it was a great idea to get more people producing food for the Texans. Besides, even if someday they weren’t needed to feed other Texans, she was sure there’d always be a lively black market for smuggled food and other items in Indigo and Johto.
The past month had seen the ring of crops completely filled, so Ninhursag and her students were working on the larger fields Iain and his family had established a short distance from the vicinity of the houses. Originally Iain had wanted ten or twenty acres of land in agricultural production to support his clan’s activities. After all, Ninhursag could grow a harvest in day and her private queendom was working hard to become as efficient as she was. With twenty acres of land in crops, Iain would have all the food they’d need for the winter with a goodly amount for trade. But his maharani apparently had other ideas.
Iain thought perhaps that Ninhursag was apparently determined to make up for three hundred years of not using her plant growing magic outside of combat in one fell swoop. Every day she was plowing more fields and planting more seeds to grow. By this point they had more than a hundred acres in production and his Elfqueen showed no signs of slowing down.
Iain was starting to worry that they’d saturate the market in Austin and Port Arthur before long and drive prices down enough to hurt the others trying to sell produce. That wasn’t part of his plans so he was now looking for factors in Dallas and El Paso to sell his wares. Not that more factors was part of his plans either, but enriching his clan and beggaring somebody else just trying to make a living were two different things in his mind.
“Credit for your thoughts.”
Iain looked at Canaan. “They don’t have credits here, thank the gods.”
The Splice raised a hand and something shot from the field into it. She offered him the orange and green vegetable. “Carrot for your thoughts?”
He chuckled. “I think we need to go on a little trip, you and me.” He turned his attention inward as Canaan knocked most of the dirt off the carrot and tossed it onto a pile of already harvested vegetables. Ask Raven if Kerrik would allow me to come by for a brief visit.
Canaan’s eyebrows rose as his twee replied. I’m accessing the satellite net now. There was a pause. She says you missed lunch already but that you’re welcome to visit anytime in the next three hours.
Tell her thank you for me. I and one other will arrive in two minutes. He took Canaan’s arm. “Let’s go.”
“I haven’t been there yet, so give me a second.” The Splice’s antenna twitched as she meshed her mind with his. The landscape changed and they were standing in a grove of trees that Iain recognized as the place Autumn had grown for her living bow. “Where to from here?”
To be honest, we expected you to arrive in the parking lot. Whisper appeared in front of Iain. She blinked and her antenna twitched almost in unison with Canaan’s. Her ears flattened and her eyes narrowed slightly as she extended her antennae to full length. Beside Iain, Canaan mirrored her movements.
Iain looked from one face to the other and drew his pistol. “If you two don’t back down and play nice I’m going to start shooting people.”
Both women blinked and turned their attention to him. Kerrik would not appreciate it if you shot me. Whisper’s antennae slowly curled up again as; once again, Canaan mirrored her movements.
Iain chuckled. “Whatever mean thing you’re saying about me, Whisper, I still can’t hear it.” He holstered his weapon. “This is Canaan and she’s my bodyguard.”
“She said I wouldn’t be happy if you shot her,” Kerrik said as he joined them. “Which I wouldn’t. So why is a self-invited guest threatening Whisper?”
“I was threatening to shoot them both because they were squaring off to see who had the best mind in Texas.”
Kerrik peered closely at Canaan. “What the fuck is she?”
“I am a Splice,” Canaan said slowly. She was keeping her eyes on the Cabbit in front of her. “We are not at war.”
You attacked me first.
“No, you attacked me first.”
Kerrik’s ears flicked. “Ladies, I think we’ll call it mutual combat and I think I suddenly agree with Iain. You two want to prove who’s best and he and I will figure out some kind of contest for you. You aren’t going to engage in head to head combat. He needs his telepath and I need mine.”
That word doesn’t seem to mean what I might think it does. What is a Splice?
Kerrik sighed. “Whisper wants to know what a Splice is.”
“There’s a magic item that will take two pokegirls and merge them completely. Some jackass did that to the Amachamp and the Alaka-Wham that became Canaan. These pokegirls are referred to as G-Splices or Splices for short.”
“You know,” Canaan said suddenly, “since I can hear Whisper I can just pipe her part of the conversation into Iain’s mind. I can communicate with him.” She grunted when Iain drove an elbow into her gut. He wasn’t strong enough to leave a mark, much less hurt her, but it did get her attention. “What?”
“You’re being an ass and making it sound like it’s because you’re better than Whisper.” Iain bobbed his head towards the Cabbit. “Canaan and I share a delta bond which is why she can penetrate my shielding. Before that event happened she couldn’t.”
A slow smile appeared on Whisper’s face. You’re crafty, Canaan. I like that. I offer you a truce. We will someday determine which of us is actually the better psychic, but it will be under controlled conditions that will not result in one of us dying.
“I agree,” Canaan said.
“Now that’s settled,” Iain managed not to shake his head or roll his eyes. “I think I need to talk to you, Kerrik.”
Kerrik’s ears pricked curiously. “You think you need to talk to me. Now I’m curious. Want a beer?”
“Sure.”
A few minutes later they were seated on some rough benches. Kerrik sighed as he looked around. “As you can see, not much has changed on the housing front. They’re still arguing about what they want.”
Iain snickered. “It happened to us too, until I gave them a deadline.”
Kerrik’s eyes lit up. “What happens after the deadline passes?”
“I was going to take the decision making process out of their hands at that point.”
The kami grinned. “Now that sounds like an excellent idea.”
I disagree.
“I’m sure you do, Whisper.” Kerrik sipped at his beer. “I know you probably expected Raven since you contacted me through her, but she’s not here right now. She’s up north spending time with some old semi-enemies.”
“She’s at Winston’s?” Iain smiled. “I’m glad to hear they may be getting along.” He glanced at Canaan. “I think Hunter pokegirls all have issues with socializing with each other. That might explain the immediate antipathy between Whisper and Canaan. Canaan is a Hunter through her Amachamp half.”
I didn’t realize that Canaan was family. Whisper’s ears flicked. We have seen that it does seem that Hunters cannot seem to get along well unless there’s a powerful tamer involved. I wonder if there is data on the subject.
“Later,” Kerrik told her. “What did you want, Iain?”
“I have just returned from a trip back to the dimension my pokegirls came from, the one that you call Pokegirl Twelve.” Iain grimaced. “There were some complications with that trip. First of all, I originally returned because I’d told someone that I’d bring her and some of her followers through. She’s got this mission of making the world a better place for humanity.”
“Sounds like a celestial.”
“She is. She’s a Megami-sama named Lucifer and she heads up an organization called the Sisterhood of the Thorn.”
Whisper started. She was targeted by several Hunters after her break with Sukebe. In this world she died years ago.
Canaan laughed. “She faked her death. We’ve met the Lucifer from this world and she’s very much alive.”
Really? She must be very remarkable.
“Be that as it may,” Iain overrode the side conversation deliberately. “Lucy was supposed to bring a couple of thousand members of the Sisterhood to this world to act as a force for good. Things changed during the month I was away and we just arrived back with most of the Sisterhood. It’s a little over sixty thousand pokegirls with five thousand heavily trained combatants.”
Kerrik gave a low whistle. “Will they fight for Texas?”
“They’re renting property from me and Lucifer is considering having her people join my clan as outer clan.” Iain hesitated. “More importantly for you and yours, I kidnapped four people and brought them back here.”
“I didn’t think your tastes ran to kidnapping.”
“They don’t. This was someone whose analog you knew. Her name is Monica Chambers and she’s the forcefully retired former Minister of Defense for the Blue League.”
Kerrik blinked. “Cherry? I met her once. What about her?”
“There’s a program in the Blue League to strip the DNA from the white blood cells of promising tamers and use that to fertilize eggs to increase the human population. In some cases they remove the female DNA too to make a clone of the man in question.”
Kerrik shook his head. “Another totalitarian regime completely ignoring the privacy and property rights of its citizens.”
Iain nodded slowly. “Monica got pregnant with the DNA from her universe’s Jamie Harris Wolf.”
Kerrik chuckled. “At least she used some of the best seed she could find. Is that why you grabbed them?”
“No, it’s because they used my DNA to plant a clone in one of Monica’s pokegirls. The Blue League was hoping he’d have my powers and they could raise him to be loyal to them.”
Kerrik laughed. “The odds of any of your children being born a truewizard is so low as to approach zero.” He glanced at Iain. “I know you’re smart enough to know that little fact already. So why did you kidnap these women? Do you fancy one of them?”
Iain shot him a glare. “I get enough of that from the women in my life thank you very much.” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “The same women who would throw six kinds of a fit if I shot them out of hand. No, I don’t fancy any of them. I liked Monica when I wrote about her. After this shitty thing she did, not so much anymore.”
The anger of your harem is an excuse, Iain. Truly why haven’t you killed them?
“That’s easy,” Canaan replied. “Iain won’t admit it to anyone, but he let Monica inside his bubble.”
Iain blinked. “I did what?”
“By all rights Monica and her entire harem should be dead and that fetus, if you bothered with it, would be either in a member of the harem as a surrogate or in a growth tank on the Theodora. That fact that none of those things is occurring is obvious. That Monica and possibly Camille is inside your bubble is the only reason I can think of that makes sense for the situation as it stands. And since I am a genius, well that means I’m right. And since you’re no slouch yourself in brain power, you should just acknowledge that I’m right and go from there.”
Kerrik was laughing at the two of them. “And I thought I had troublesome girls.”
Iain stared at Canaan for several seconds. “You told Monica that she wasn’t in my bubble.”
“I lied. I do that you know. She has been inside your bubble since the day you two met. We went back because you missed her.”
He put the beer down on the bench beside him and whacked himself in the forehead with his fists. “Fuck me, she is right. Why didn’t I realize that?”
“You would have eventually,” the Splice said gently, “but then we had the incident with Mhodvitnar and you got distracted when things went a little sideways. I’m a genius and can multitask far better than any human will ever be able to do, so I continued thinking about it.”
Kerrik straightened. “I thought you said you consumed Mhodvitnar.”
Iain picked up his beer and drained it in one long swallow. He put the empty down and laced his fingers together. “I did. But his personality began coalescing inside my brain with the objective of taking me over and replacing me with him.”
“It’s obvious he didn’t succeed.”
Iain’s eyebrows rose. “Oh?”
“Mhodvitnar and I have a history. The last place in the multiverse he’d want to be is in front of me.” Following Tirsuli custom, Kerrik normally smiled without showing his teeth but this time his fangs glittered in the sunlight. “To use your terminology, he hurt someone in my bubble. Not badly, so I hadn’t made him a priority, but he knew that if we crossed paths his existence was going to end.”
Iain frowned and searched his memory. “Oh. You’re right.”
“You still have his memories?”
“The best way to keep this from happening again was to incorporate his life into mine so his memories would become part of me.”
Kerrik’s ears flattened for a second. “That could have some serious side effects.”
Iain grinned suddenly. “I wish you’d said that to me before I did it. I’m already going through some of those and they’re not fun. These things will pass, right?”
Kerrik shrugged. “Hopefully, but there’s no guarantee since every person is different. What you did is rare enough that there’s no real empirical data.”
“Didn’t Shikarou do that with Germanicus’ memories?”
“He did, but Germanicus wasn’t a truewizard, and being a truewizard could make all of the difference in the universe. As you know, that makes a great deal of difference.”
Iain frowned. “Speaking of them,” he began.
Kerrik interrupted. “Unlike my sons, I keep a reasonably cordial relationship with Ygerna. She’s told me that you’re sure that hers and her enemies’ analogs exist in Great Britain.”
“Why didn’t you say anything to Faelan about him stringing her along?”
“I did. Svetlana currently holds more sway over his heart than I do over his head and my advice was ignored.”
Iain nodded slowly. “Did she mention that she’s going to move her court to Texas because of it?”
Kerrik blinked. “No, I wasn’t aware of that development. Is that one your fault too?”
“It is. I think she’ll be happier here than she is in Haven.”
Kerrik snorted. “That’s almost too easy to guarantee. She’s dreadfully unhappy in Haven. Where will she be living?”
“She thinks she’ll purchase some land on one of my borders from the state.”
Kerrik grinned toothily. “Better you than me. That woman wants kids so bad it’s frightening.”
“I invited her.” Iain leaned back on the bench, “and I don’t think she’ll be that bad. I don’t really have anything to offer her in that direction.”
“That may not be as true as you’d believe.” Kerrik nodded when Iain gave him a surprised look. “Half fey children are considered fey if they are powerful enough and you are easily the most magical male human in the Texas League. Power means everything and a child’s bloodline will be quickly forgotten if it is powerful enough. And since you’re inherently magical and potentially much more powerful than you are now, any offspring you had with a fey woman could possibly be stronger than its mother. Ygerna may not know this, but that doesn’t make it less true.”
“Are you going to tell her?”
Kerrik shook his head. “I don’t have any plans too. Now if she comes sniffing around me I may change my mind, but,” he shrugged.
“Better me than you,” Iain finished acidly.
“Exactly. I’ll cheerfully give you up to save myself.”
Whisper meowed her laughter at Iain’s expression. According to what I’ve read, one should never invite the Sidhe into one’s home. Perhaps you’ll become another object lesson into that.
“Gee, that’s all I need. I can get to be my own personal Grimm’s tale and get talked about around campfires.”
Canaan snickered. “Yeah, if you invite a Sidhe woman into your life she’ll suck the juices out of you.” Her snicker became laughter as Iain groaned. “Don’t worry, April will probably stick a knife in her.”
“Maybe I’ll move to Venus,” Iain muttered, “and live there while terraforming the planet with a shovel.”
Kerrik was still chucking when he collected Iain’s bottle and rose. “Is there anything else I can worry you about?”
“No, I think you’ve done quite enough.”
“I am going to tell Jamie about Monica, her presence here and her pregnancy.”
Iain took Canaan’s hand. “I didn’t doubt that. Just remind him that I live on private property and he’d better get Ginevra under control before coming by. I will not tolerate bad behavior towards one of my guests. I know that sounds like a threat, but you wouldn’t tolerate it either if Jamie weren’t part of your family. And Ginevera can act recklessly if she feels slighted.”
Kerrik sighed. “You’re right. Ginevra’s cuteness is definitely limited. I’ll be specific when I talk to them.”
“Thank you.”
***
Iain Grey
Living Harem
Ninhursag - Elfqueen & maharani
Eve Grey - Megami Sama
April Grey - Duelist & beta
Dominique - Blessed Archmage
Pandora - Fiendish Archangel
Canaan - G Splice (Hunter Amachamp & Alaka-Wham)
Zareen - Nightmare
Raquel - Fiendish Rapitaur
Sofia - Peekabu
Vanessa - Evangelion
Dead Harem
Eirian - Silver Dragoness
Aurum - Gold Dragoness
Skye - Blue Dragoness
Emerald - Green Dragoness
Beryl - Red Dragoness
Julia - human
Ling - Cheetit
Matilda - White Tigress
Liadan - Twau
Sorrel - Armsmistress
Natalie - Blazicunt
Slutton
Ranch employees
Daphne - Whorizard
Lynn - Growlie
Chuck - Doggirl
Ryan - Ponytaur
Winifred - Rack (German)
Rosemary - Kitten (Uruguayan)
Allison - Umbrea
Silver - Ponytaur
12 Elves
2 Elfqueens - Dionne & Adrianna
Joyce - Milktit
Lara - Milktit
LakeEmployees
Heltu - Wet Queen
6 Wet Elves