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Grey Chronicles
Twenty Four
(10/25/08 0935 Grey Ranch, Texas League)
The brewery was a large building that echoed hollowly when anyone walked inside it. It was mostly empty as Joyce was still doing research on beer making. She’d absorbed what Theodora knew and was turning that knowledge into something practical for the situation.
Currently the building held a grinder, some racks and an oven for making malt. Some of the racks held toasted barley from the night before and they filled the air with a sweet scent vaguely reminiscent of baked bread. Stainless steel bins held barley, hops and bricked sugar processed from the cane growing in Ninhursag’s fields, while some small drums held cane and black strap molasses for experimentations. A collection of jars on a shelf contained beer yeasts that Iain, Canaan and Pandora had purchased while in the other dimension. On a long table a small scale setup for making beer was being assembled, but Joyce hadn’t been able to complete it before being called off for last night’s rugby game. Tubing, fittings, valves and tools were neatly stacked on a utility cart to one side of the apparatus.
She wasn’t on either of the clan teams, but April and Ninhursag had decreed that everyone had to attend as part of the socialization of the former soldiers into clan and family life. Joyce was learning to be a referee. It was challenging, to say the least, because of the unique problems from the pokegirls who were native to this world. Since all of the outer clan had gone from gestation tank to military to refugee in only a few years and had completely skipped childhood, their social skills were, to say the least, lacking.
Wreckball, with its maze of rules, had utterly confused the clan members who hadn’t grown up with it and soccer, which was kicking a ball and running, seemed silly. But rugby, with its combination of teamwork, endurance trials and limited combat had proven to be a resounding success, at least once April and Theodora had cooked up some homebrew rules to incorporate a range of pokegirl abilities into the game. Matches were being used to test how those rules worked in real life and the results were sometimes, well, interesting.
For example, the size of the field was triple that of a human rugby pitch and it was beginning to look like it would have to be larger still. Ranged techniques were illegal and any technique which damaged the pitch got the user an automatic yellow card. The damage was not repaired until the end of the match. They also used rugby union rules instead of rugby league.
Joyce stopped in the doorway to the brewery and stared in shock at the mess. The bins had been opened and sugar and barley were scattered around them. “What the fuck?” She looked around and paled when she realized that the containers of yeast powder had been taken down and all of them were almost completely empty. “Oh, shit.” She picked up a rubber mallet from the cart and used her twee to send Iain a request that he come to the brewery.
“What are you doing here?”
Joyce whirled at the slurred voice. Her eyes sparked angrily at the sight of Lara leaning against the rack of malted barley. “You are not supposed to be in here.” She took in the Milktit’s red eyes and flushed face and scowled. “You’ve been in the marijuana again. You’re stoned.”
Lara scooped up a handful of malt and popped it in her mouth, oblivious to Joyce’s anger. “I was hungry and this smelled good.”
Joyce pointed the mallet at the door. Fury slurred her words as she shouted. “This is my brewery and you are not welcome! Get the hell out!”
Lara smiled dully and grabbed more malt. “No.”
Joyce snarled, raised the mallet and charged.
***
Iain and Canaan were headed for the brewery when they heard a scream of agony that abruptly cut off short. They sprinted the rest of the distance. Canaan grabbed him by the shoulder and shoved him sideways as he tried to go through the doorway. “You stay out here.” She slipped past him and inside. Iain peered through the doorway as she knelt at the side of a crumpled figure. She had to kneel in a slowly spreading pool of blood in order to do so. “It’s Joyce.” The Splice looked up. “Her chest and abdomen have been crushed and ripped. She’s dying.”
“Get her pokeball.” When she hesitated he glared at her. “I am staying out here and you won’t be gone long. Do it!”
“I’ll be right back.” She disappeared.
There was a pounding of feet inside the brewery and the wall Iain was pressed against exploded outwards. Iain was catapulted forward and hit hard, rolling to the right as he pulled his pistol. The pokegirl was taller than Iain and heavily built. She had horns that spread a foot to either side of her head and ended in needle sharp points. Her face and horns were covered with blood caked with dust from the wall. She roared angrily at him.
She’s a Minotaura and she has a twee. It’s Lara.
Iain scrambled to his feet and backed up quickly, keeping the pistol down so as not to threaten her. “Lara! Stand down!”
The Minotaura growled and charged, lowering her head as she rumbled towards him. One of the horn tips seemed aimed at his right eye.
Iain shot her six times in the chest, shifted his aim and emptied the pistol into her face. She slammed into him and he went down beneath her. He grunted as something snapped in his chest. Blood and brains splashed over him, blinding him and filling his mouth as he gasped for air. He squeezed his eyes shut and shoved at the body.
“Iain!” The body lifted away and he was jerked to his feet. With his perception he could see it was April, Silver and Allison. Iain winced at the sharp pain when he spat and sucked air. April’s healing magic bathed him and the pain faded. “You had a cracked rib but I’ve healed that and otherwise you’re ok. What happened?”
“Save Joyce.”
Silver held him upright with one arm and carefully wiped the worst of the blood and brain matter off of his face with her shirt. “Canaan already has her.”
April looked at Allison. “Clear the building.” The Umbrea nodded and headed inside. “What happened, Iain?”
“That’s Lara and she apparently attacked Joyce. Canaan went to get Joyce’s pokeball and Lara went after me. I told her to stand down and then killed her when she didn’t.” Iain popped the magazine out of his pistol and swapped it out with one of spare ones he carried on his belt. He slapped the full magazine in and pulled the charging lever back. “And now you know as much as I do.”
She wasn’t feral. Her twee wasn’t talking to me but I know she wasn’t feral.
“My twee says she wasn’t feral,” Iain tried to stand on his on and gave up when his feet wouldn’t support him. “And apparently I’m a little shocky.”
“I wonder why,” the Ponytaur holding him muttered sarcastically.
“Ha, ha.” He took a deep breath and forced himself to stand upright. “Don’t let me go,” he warned Silver. “I’ll probably fall yet.”
“I won’t,” she promised with a smile. “I decided a while ago that I’ll never let you get away, Iain.”
Allison returned as silently as she’d left. “The building is clear of threats, but the interior walls are pretty smashed up and the roof is sagging. I wouldn’t let anyone I care about,” she glanced at Iain, “go in there.”
A peevish expression crossed his face. “I am not going to go through the whole rigmarole about how I am not made of glass every time I add to the clan.”
Canaan appeared beside him. “They know you’re not. Like us, they don’t want you to get hurt before you fuck them.”
“I don’t want him hurt at all,” Allison snapped. “He’s our male.”
April grinned when he scowled. “Imagine how they’ll be when they’re bonded to you.”
He made a face and tried to stand again, this time succeeding. Silver let him go reluctantly. “I’m trying really hard not to.” Allison’s face fell and he hugged her. “I’m not upset at you. I’m glad you care, I’m just not happy that every woman in my life thinks she can tell me how to live mine.”
She gave him a mischievous smirk. “So if I look sad you’ll touch me?”
Iain sighed and let her go. “I’m teaching the wrong behavior to all of you.” He turned to April. “If the building is too badly damaged we’ll demolish it and have Theodora build another one.” He held out his hand to Canaan. She dropped a pokeball into it and he toggled the release.
Joyce took one look at him and went white. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine. Why?”
She pointed at his face. “You’re covered in blood.” She peered closer and went even paler. “And stuff.” She swallowed hard and her face was suddenly tinged with green.
Iain nodded. “It’s not mine. It’s Lara’s. I’ll go bathe after we investigate what happened. What can you tell me?”
The Milktit was staring at the corpse. “You killed her?”
“I didn’t have any choice. She attacked me.”
Joyce looked up at him dully. “It was my fault. She got in the brewery and ransacked the place. She even ate all of the yeasts. She’d been in the marijuana again and was stoned out of her mind. Losing the irreplaceable yeasts was the final straw. I ordered her out of the brewery and when she said no I lost my temper and attacked her with a hammer. She freaked when I hit her and evolved. Then she rammed me with her horns and that’s all I remember.” She shuddered at something only she could see. “I’m sorry, Iain. I was just so mad about the yeast.”
Iain reached out and touched her cheek. Joyce threw herself into his arms and held on tightly enough he couldn’t breathe for a moment. When she finally relaxed a little, he chuckled. “I expected that there’d be some accidents with the yeast, Joyce, and so I gave samples of all of the various types to Theodora. She’s cultured it and we have plenty in storage. As for Lara, she was apparently an explosion waiting to happen.”
He’s right. I’ll deliver replacements for what you lost along with the new brewery building. Iain, I put load sensors in all of the structures I build and the brewery has lost too much structural integrity to be viable. Replacement will be easier than repair and I am already making a new building. It’ll be ready in two days and I’ll swap it out with the damaged one. I’ll even restock it with yeast.
Joyce’s voice was muffled against Iain’s neck. “Thank you, Theodora.”
You are very welcome, Joyce.
Iain gently pried Joyce off of him. “So there’s nothing to fret about. You’ll have your private space back soon enough.”
The Milktit beamed at him. “Thank you!”
***
(10/27/08 1130 Grey Ranch, Texas League)
It was obvious as Dominique approached that the house showed signs that Ninhursag and her cabal of plant growing fiends had been here too. Rosebushes flowered on both sides of the entrance and a small knot garden had been laid out on the right side of the house. Monica was moving slowly through the knot garden and peering at the ground as she walked. She wore gloves and had a pensive expression on her face.
Dominique chuckled loudly and Monica’s head came up. “If you’re looking for weeds you’re not going to find any. No weed would dare grow where Ninhursag didn’t say it could.”
Monica shook her head. “Weeding relaxes me and right now I need all of the relaxation I can get.”
“Would talking about it help?”
“Considering that your tamer is most of the problem, I’m not sure I should talk to you about anything.”
Dominique shrugged. “Monica, you’re never going back to the Blue you know. There’s nothing you can do to change that. Now if there’s anything else I can help you with, I’d be glad to. Considering the situation, if I were you I’d listen to Reinhold Niebuhr and make the best I can of where my life has led me to.”
Chambers frowned and looked thoughtful for a moment. “I’m not familiar with him.”
“He was a Christian theologian who in the 1930s wrote the Serenity Prayer. Iain mentions it from time to time.”
“I’ve never heard of it.”
“You probably have heard a version of it, but a lot of things were lost when Sukebe destroyed most of the world. I’d never heard the whole thing before Iain told it to me.” Dominique pursed her lips. “‘God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time; enjoying one moment at a time; accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will; that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him Forever in the next. Amen.’”
Monica folded her arms. “Why should I accept what you did to me?”
“Because you brought this on yourself and the situation could be a lot simpler than it is.”
The human blinked. “Simpler?”
“Being dead is not complex, Monica, and a lot of people wanted you and your family dead. We saved you personally and you and the Blue League betrayed Iain’s trust. Several people here haven’t forgiven that yet.” There was a bench in the knot garden and Dominique settled down on it. “And the Blue League was lucky that Vanessa was still on the Theodora with the girls. She was almost as angry as April was, but not just at you, and her being angry frightens me.”
“Why should Blue fear the fury of a single pokegirl?”
“Vanessa is Evangelion, Monica. She could have made Blue look like a smaller version of the Orange Islands.”
Monica gaped at her. “What on earth is Evangelion doing with Iain?”
“The short version is that every author that we knew about had a legendary,” she paused, “considering what happened to Kelvin’s Choice at one point, patron isn’t exactly the word I’d use. Let’s just say that every author we knew about had a legendary who was involved with him in one form or another.”
“How many authors did you know about?”
“We were in contact with two other authors, but there were a couple of others mentioned by them at one time or another. They didn’t try to contact us and Iain was too busy to try and chase them down.”
Monica frowned. “Wait a moment, Vanessa has two daughters. I met them and I didn’t get the impression they were adopted. She can’t be Evangelion.”
“They’re not adopted. Iain did something and Vanessa spent the next year pregnant with the girls. No, he’s not sure what he did to make her pregnant, but everyone chalked it up to yet another display of major author mojo. What’s important for you is that Vanessa is a legendary, she’s in love with him and she wanted to turn you into a grease spot and Blue into an atoll. Fortunately calmer heads prevailed and Vanessa has never been into casual murder.” She grinned. “Lucky for you and yours it wasn’t Canaan or Pandora. If either one of them had been a legendary, I’d be sitting here talking to myself.”
Monica regarded her sourly. “With everyone wanting us dead, why am I not?”
“Iain likes you and sees something in you that we don’t. He’s put out the word that you’re not supposed to be hurt and he feels that killing your harem would hurt you. Now what you need to look at is what you can change in your situation and what, out of those things you can change, you want to change.”
“What can I change?”
“You can put a smile on your face and reflect on the fact that you’re living in a nice place where you don’t have to lift a finger to make a living. This means you can indulge in any hobby you might have. You can see animals that are extinct where we came from. You can enjoy the fact that Camille isn’t throwing up every five minutes and setting you off whenever she does.” Dominique’s voice hardened slightly. “You can try to make amends with the people who are protecting your ass. We did like you once. You can pitch in since there’s always work to be done or you can sit here and moan about how unfair life is that we fucking took offense at what you did to us.”
“Anything else,” Monica asked acidly.
“Yeah, you could do my personal favorite and move far, far away. I was thinking maybe the Shanghai League.” Dominique grimaced. “No, Iain would worry too much about your little group and we’d waste far too much time keeping an eye on you to ensure your safety. Not to mention as soon as Shanghai realized how valuable you were to us and what we could do for them, they’d blackmail us for thousands of tonnes of equipment for use against Nippon.”
“What are those places?”
“Oh, yeah, something else you could do is you could ask Iain for twees for your family and start boning up on this world’s politics. Here, what would have been the Edo League was given to China to command and Nippon objected strenuously. They objected so much at having Chinese overlords that they formed their own league and since their emperor didn’t die in the United States during the Revenge War, they’ve got the leadership they need to carry out a spirited war against the Chinese. Nippon is being supplied with weapons and pokegirl related gear by Haven and the real Kerrik Wolf. This fact, plus the fact that China doesn’t have much of a naval fleet anymore means that China, which is now the Shanghai League, isn’t doing so well.” Dominique cocked her head. “On this world Typhonna and the other legendaries didn’t do much damage to the world’s landmasses. Because of this, there wasn’t the social upheaval that our world experienced and the people who staged the coups that resulted in the formation of the leagues are having a much harder time of it, both because of the lack of social upheaval as well as the fact that there’s a whole lot more land to try to overlord. Now that Haven and Kerrik are actively supporting some of the non-league factions in order to keep the situation chaotic while Haven gets established things are going to get even dicier.”
Monica sat down heavily beside Dominique. “I’m not going to say I’m sorry for the decisions we made. That would be a lie and too many of you would know better. Also, I realize how dependent we are on you and your tamer and, while it grates, I know I can’t afford to alienate you any further.”
“And that grates too,” Dominique interjected.
“More than you can imagine,” Monica said wryly.
“No, I was that dependent on Iain once and I know exactly how it feels. But you can either be dependent, take steps to become as self-reliant as possible or do something in between.”
“I know. I’m still weighing my options.”
Dominique got up. “Weigh them faster. The girls who are from this world know that if you kill someone the problems they represent go away. That’s not entirely true, but they haven’t learned that fact yet.”
“Am I in danger?”
“Iain has put out word that you and yours are not to be attacked, but these are pokegirls the likes of which you’re not used to. To them killing humans is what they’re supposed to be doing and I wouldn’t tempt fate for too long.”
***
(10/29/08 0530 Grey Ranch, Texas League)
Eve fixed Iain with a glare that was half angry and half terrified. “I do not like this,” she stated flatly.
“I’m not a big fan of the idea either but you saw the data and you heard Theodora’s report. This is the safest way to approach this mission.”
Vanessa folded her arms. “Then we don’t do it. They are our enemies. We’ll just smash them flat and be done with it.”
Iain looked at Theodora’s hologram. “What is the population of the area?”
“Since my last report a month ago, Leesville’s population has grown to more than six thousand persons. Combined with the population of Fort Polk the total would be nearly thirteen thousand.” Theodora glanced at Vanessa. “The destruction of Fort Polk and its support elements would result in a conservative death toll considering the power of this harem even if I do not get involved of between forty and sixty percent. That number converts to between six and eight thousand fatalities. Roughly a thousand of these deaths would be juveniles and children.”
Ninhursag cocked her head. “What would be the butcher’s bill if you got involved?”
“A precision orbital bombardment of basalt projectiles would easily kill seventy to ninety percent of life in the area. Three such strikes would almost certainly sterilize the region. If I moved closer and employed mine or my parasite’s energy weapons, I could turn the region into a vast pool of lava within which nothing could survive. Thermonuclear weapons would do similar damage as an orbital bombardment, but with all of the issues that deployment of thermonuclear devices bring. C-fractional strikes would do the same damage as my energy weapons but are less precise. However, Iain will not release me to attack Fort Polk or he would have already done so.”
Lucifer was sitting beside Eve. She was present both because of her impending involvement with Iain and as the representative of the Sisterhood in an affair that could result in general war with the Indigo League. “While I don’t like this either, the facts are pretty straightforward.” She began ticking off points with her fingers as she spoke. “Point one: regardless of the sensor net you already have in place we need to recon Fort Polk and humint is the best intelligence out there. Point two: any pokegirl going in alone will be attacked with the intent of capturing her and bonding her to a member of the Indigo Army. Point three: any tamer going in with a pokegirl cannot ensure that she isn’t confiscated for the needs of the Indigo Army. Four goes with point three which is that any tamer with more than one pokegirl will almost certainly lose at least one of them to the Indigos. Point five: Indigo is being supplied with a limited amount of modern pokegirl related equipment from the Kingdom of Haven. A lot of this is going to be parceled out to the command echelon in the Indigo military, which means at least one person in Fort Polk undoubtedly has a pokedex for scanning and so no pokegirl can reliably masquerade as a human woman with or without an escort. Even if she could, point six is that any unescorted woman will be checked for ID to see if she’s been tested for fertility. The authorities will discover that she doesn’t have one and at that point she’ll be detained and interrogated whether she looks like a pokegirl or not. Finally, point seven is that they have pokegirls too and a stealth recon is contraindicated. If she’s detected, another try will face much lower odds of success.” She shrugged. “Iain is the only one who can possibly pull this off and his decision to go in alone makes sense.”
Ninhursag frowned. “As much as I hate to admit it, Lucy is right. We will be monitoring Iain through our bonds and we will have a reaction team standing by around the clock ready to go to his side if there’s trouble.”
“If? How about when,” Raquel said distinctly. Strained laughter sounded.
“Then when it happens we will get our husband back,” April replied tersely. “We are not sending Iain to his death.”
“We are definitely not doing that,” Iain said. “I’m not sure I know how I want to die, but I am sure that’s not it. It probably involves some of you ladies and a bed.” This time the laughter was more relaxed. “And that if I have to die at all.” His smile faded. “I can’t take any of you with me, but I will still have my tattoos and whatever weapons I take. Lucifer has been nice enough to donate an AR-15 and a Smith and Wesson .44 magnum revolver that was found in a house here and I’ve cleaned them up enough to make them look exactly like what they are, which is salvaged. Theodora has made me some old looking ammunition to go with them.” He looked around the room slowly. “Rest assured that this is not some corny way for me to finally get some time alone. It is not an attempt at suicide either. Since I don’t have a Texas accent anymore I will be a member of the Irish Army who was stranded here when his ride bailed and didn’t come back. Everyone was sending observers around to try and learn something new about using pokegirls as weapons. Hopefully they’ll believe my story and recruit me. My goal is to try to convince the command elements that we’d make better trading partners than enemies, but it’s going to be a lot like our time in Sanctuary. A lot of this will be played by ear and if I get into trouble I want a rescue team there instantly. I’ve been captured too many times and had too many pieces of me carved off to think that being the prisoner of some totalitarian regime is fun.” He grimaced. “Theodora, tell me what we know.”
“Last year Brigadier General Robert John Golding took command of JRTC Fort Polk. He’s comes from Massachusetts and is one of a new generation of general officers who cut their teeth during the Revenge War. He even has a pokegirl of his own, a powerhouse of a Dark Kitsune named Nicole. They’ve been together for nearly a decade. Records indicate that he does not hesitate when combat begins but he is not by any means a hawk in regards to his politics. However he follows orders and when ordered to invade Texas he would move as soon as he could. He employed scorched earth policies against the pokegirl units and it could be argued that he knows as much about fighting pokegirls as anyone in Indigo.” The hologram folded her hands behind her back. “If he has any faults in combat it is that he is sometimes too aggressive and bold. He has been known to overextend his units and his supply train to the point of collapse. It’s a habit he hasn’t broken since pokegirl forces seldom went for his supply train.” She shrugged. “Unfortunately we do not possess the forces necessary to mousetrap him successfully. It means he will hit this area with more than enough force to crush us, if we fight a conventional battle.” Theodora nodded towards Lucifer. “I am not including the Sisterhood in these calculations as you have not committed them to any defense of our lands.”
“No offense is taken, Theodora.” Lucifer looked at Iain. “We are trained in small unit tactics primarily. Due to the nature of our foes we normally deploy in singletons, squads and the occasional platoon or company. The Sisterhood has never fought in what you could consider a major conflict.”
“I don’t want you to do so here either,” Iain said firmly.
Lucifer looked surprised. “You don’t?”
“No. If you do get involved, your forces are, as you said, trained in small unit combat. That’s what you should do. Hit their scouts and send units to destroy their supply depots. If we blind them and cut off their food they’ll grind to a halt in a few days.” He grimaced. “Of course, those few days will put them well past the boundaries of our land.”
“No they won’t,” Pandora growled.
“I think our Archangel is backsliding just a bit.” Dominique grinned when Pandora colored slightly. “That doesn’t make her wrong, though. The Indigos don’t have much if any artillery and any air assets are just meat for the butcher as far as we’re concerned, while we have access to realtime satellite reconnaissance. We will chew chunks off of them every time they start to move.”
“They have pokegirls too,” Lucifer said quietly.
“They have tanked girls who were given just enough of an education to know not to hit each other and sent out to fight, led by tamers who don’t understand what being a tamer means or what their girls can do. That makes each of us worth at least twenty of them.”
Iain shook his head. “Lucifer is right. They will still have us outnumbered and quantity, no matter how low the quality, does count for something. Besides, the quality isn’t quite as low as you’re suggesting and you know it.”
Ninhursag smiled. “And how well will they advance through a thunderstorm like the one I called up last time? We, on the other hand, can still attack through it.” Something ugly showed at the edges of her smile. “And I can attack with it.”
“I didn’t say we wouldn’t bleed them,” Iain’s voice held a slight edge, “but we will not go with the old standby of ‘this is our land and here we will stop them or die’. We can always rebuild after we drive them out. Our defense will be fluid, not static, and it will not be limited to our property. They can chase us all the way to Sunshine if we need to withdraw that far before striking back. Remember what we said before, fall back and kill the officers and noncoms. They get new officers and noncoms, we kill them too. At night we slip into camp and kill more officers until they get the idea that we aren’t interested in killing the rank and file. Officers value their lives more than they do those of regular soldiers. That’s why they stay in the back.”
Lucifer frowned. “If I remember correctly, American enlisted soldiers were trained to show initiative in battle.”
“They are,” Dominique replied, “but they don’t want to die any more than we do. Most of them have no issue with the Texas League or with us and are just following orders. If the fellows giving the orders start dropping dead, they’ll consider going home. Every one that goes home is out of the fight and, more importantly for the long run, isn’t dead so he or she can contribute to the coming fight against the ferals. On top of that, US soldiers were volunteers. Indigo often uses conscripts who happen to have pokegirls. They don’t want to fight, much less die.”
Raquel straightened. “Why don’t we show them what they’re facing?”
Eve gave her a curious look. “What do you mean?”
“We have spare time right now, no? Then we catch ferals and keep them in pokeballs. We do not sell or awaken them. When the time comes, we release groups of them into the advancing army. If nothing else it will cause confusion.”
“You are an evil, evil mare,” Canaan said amusedly. “I like that idea.”
“Ferals as weapons,” Lucifer exchanged a look with Eve. “That is going to be hard on the ferals, but my people have already caught several of them. I am not sure if we would not leave if Indigo attacks, but I will get those to you along with any more that we catch.”
Some of us could masquerade as ferals, Eirian said into Iain’s mind. That would cause more havoc.
Iain pushed to his feet. “Ok, Theodora, begin gaming our responses with Ninhursag on various options for Indigo attacks. Don’t limit yourself based on what you think you know about Fort Polk’s command structure. As for the rest of you, we all know what we have to do and we all know we have a lot of work to do if this infiltration is going to go successfully.” He turned to Ninhursag as people started filing out. “I’d like you to stay for a minute.”
His maharani glanced at April and hesitated before nodding. “All right.” Once the room was empty except for him and her, she didn’t wait. “I don’t want you to remove April as beta.”
“I hadn’t considered doing that. I won’t revisit the subject unless you think I should.”
“Then why isn’t she here for what is obviously a command meeting?”
Iain’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Did you see her suggest that she should stay?”
“That’s because she knows things still aren’t right between the two of you.”
“And do you see her making a single move to try and resolve the problem? You can’t put all of this on me. Well, you can try but I won’t let you. April is still avoiding me because she feels guilty about something. I’m not going to force her to face me. Yes, she almost killed me. It was an accident. No, that sort of thing doesn’t quite happen every day, although Lara kind of proves that once in a while it might. In both cases the women involved went berserk and I happened to be present at the event. In neither case was I the principal target for the berserker’s ire, although right at the end I think I was a convenient target for Lara. I don’t blame April for what happened. I am not afraid of being around her. I’ll admit that I’m not fond of energy blades right now, but I don’t expect April to suddenly whip one out and attack me. Could I force her to spend time around me? Certainly I could. Am I going to so I can watch her flinch every time she looks in my direction and catches me unconsciously touching my chest? No.”
“She’s a vital part of our command structure. What can we do to help her?”
“Forcing her to confront me before she’s ready isn’t going to help.” He chuckled. “You know, you’ve had one part of being alpha of this harem pretty damned easy. April has been more than competent enough at inter-harem dynamics, which means you’ve never had to learn how to do it. Well, it looks like it’s time for you to.” He ran fingers through his hair. “You might try seeing if Theodora or your twee can talk to April’s. Unless it thinks that her behavior is what’s best for her it may be willing to help, if she hasn’t forbidden it to discuss the subject with anyone.” He smiled thinly. “You might want to wait until she’s asleep so she can’t forbid it if it asks her about it. I’d also suggest enlisting Eve’s and Dominique’s help. They’ve known April as long as I have.”
“What if we determine that we can’t help her and only you confronting her can?”
He sighed. “Then I will listen to my command staff and ignore my own misgivings. But let’s leave that for last. I do not want to drive her further away from me.”
Ninhursag nodded slowly. “I’ll see what I can do. Now what did you want to talk to me about?”
“I think it’s time to start moving satellite clan members to outer clan. It’ll cement them into our clan structure firmly. Right now they could be snapped up by a pretty man with a glib tongue.”
Ninhursag grimaced. “I agree, but I don’t think it’ll help April if you sleep with them right now. Give me a little time with this problem first.”
“I will. Do what you can. I’ll think about the problem too.”
***
(10/31/08 0115 Grey Ranch, Texas League)
April woke up when someone shook her shoulder gently. “Please come with me.” It was Iain.
She sat up instantly. “Is something wrong?”
“Yes.” He turned away as April slipped on a shirt and some shorts and followed him as he led her outside. A large transport from the Theodora was sitting nearby and he headed for it unerringly.
Once inside April sank into a chair and looked at him curiously. “You said something was wrong. What is it?”
Iain clasped his hands in front of him and looked at the deck. “I need help and I think you’re the only one who can help me, but to do so you’re going to have to get over being afraid of hurting me. I thought about waiting to do this, but after talking with Ninhursag a few days ago I was afraid she’d try to talk to you and say or do something stupid.”
“Too late,” April murmured. Iain looked up and she shrugged. “She told me to suck it up and that I should realize that you are more important than my problems. For the sake of the harem I needed to get over my issues.”
Iain shook his head. “That’s definitely not the way to approach you. She’s still got a lot to learn about the non-combat side of being an alpha.” He suddenly looked like he’d bitten into a lemon. “Should I replace her?”
April looked surprised. “She’s doing a good job.”
“Only when she’s got a beta that is doing her job.”
The Duelist’s mouth set. “I am doing my job.”
“I need my sounding board. That’s part of the beta’s job. Ninhursag can’t do it and right now you won’t. Besides she doesn’t understand me like you do. I need you. I need,” he hesitated. “I need help.”
“What about Canaan? She’s a telepath.”
“Canaan would not help. In fact she might make things worse.”
“What about Eve?”
“Eve is part of the situation and there are some things I don’t think I should discuss with her. Ever. Dominique would probably be able to listen to me, but,” he shrugged, “it’s not really a magical problem and I’m not sure she could offer useful advice.”
April’s face was drawn. “What if I can’t do this?”
“Then I’ll muddle through somehow. I’m not demanding this. I can’t.”
She eyed him for a long moment. “What is it?”
“You weren’t with the harem when I discussed my philosophy on the five types of people in the world, but,” he broke of when she raised a hand.
“Scheherazade told me about it after I joined the family. She wanted me to understand what you were like. She said you believe you are a renegade wolf.”
“That makes it easier. My entire life I’ve been different from most people and I’ve known it. If they’re outside my bubble, I don’t care about them. But it’s not entirely that simple. Sometimes I want to do things to people. I’ve never given in to those desires, but sometimes I think I’m one stressor event away from becoming a complete sociopath. Mhodvitnar had taken that step and now that I’ve lived his life I’m having more of those desires. Canaan knows about them and that’s why she appointed herself my regular bodyguard.”
“That’s a little vague, Iain. Why does she feel that she should be your regular bodyguard?”
“Because she thinks that outside of Vanessa she’s the hardest for me to kill.”
April blinked. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
“I don’t know. What I am saying is that Lucifer aggravated me by claiming she wanted to join the clan so she could be with Eve and for a moment I wanted to hurt her by killing Eve. I don’t really want to kill Eve, but the idea of hurting Lucifer for being an ass is still pretty attractive. Canaan thinks she can protect the others by taking my ire if I snap.”
“Is this from living Mhodvitnar’s life?”
Iain shook his head. “It is and it isn’t. And it doesn’t matter anymore since I now have an amalgam of his memories and mine. The fact that he lived longer than I did doesn’t give his memories more weight than mine. I am still Iain and I do not ever think of myself as being Mhodvitar, not even in my dreams. I do think that his life has made my line blurrier though and that worries me.”
“Your line?”
“The bubble I talk about has a line defining what’s inside and what’s not. The fact that I considered hurting someone I love to hurt someone who had ticked me off scares me.”
“You didn’t hurt her, though, and that is very important, Iain. It means you still know the difference between family and others. Have you had other incidences or just the one?”
“There have been a few other instances where I wanted to hurt family members,” he admitted quietly. “I’m not proud of it.”
“You shouldn’t be, and the fact that you’re not is a good thing. Why is it that Canaan might make things worse?”
“She enjoys killing more than most people know and she is likely to encourage me to kill just about anyone who isn’t part of the family.”
“It’s because she’s a Hunter, isn’t it?” April answered herself before Iain could. “Of course it is and you’re right. She should not be one of your guards. Neither should Pandora, even if she’s trying to mellow as an Archangel. You are her universe and she would deny you almost nothing.”
“Who would be helpful in this situation?”
April leaned back in her chair. “Give me a minute to think.” Iain obediently waited while she thought. “I’d say me, Sofia, Ninhursag and Dominique.”
He sighed and sank into a chair. “And out of that group who has time to babysit me?”
“They’ll make time or I’ll know the reason why,” April replied hotly.
Iain chuckled softly. “That’s great but Ninhursag has responsibilities beyond just me, so do you and so does Dominique. Sofia can’t be my only guard.”
“You are our greatest responsibility, Iain. Without you, we don’t have any of those jobs. We wouldn’t even be here. I’d still be in Ireland and pining for a family, Dominique would still be a stooge for the Order and the Blue League, Ninhursag would still be trying vainly to get revenge for her sister and Sofia would be in a different harem and having a crappy life if she hadn’t already been L5’d. If I require it, they will make time to guard you.”
“What about you?”
A wary look appeared on her face. “What do you mean?”
“Let’s not pretend you haven’t been avoiding me. I’m not saying it’s right and I’m not saying it’s wrong, I’m just saying that’s what you’re doing.”
“Iain, I,” April began.
She stopped when he raised his voice slightly. “Can I finish?” She blinked and nodded. “April, I love you and what you’re doing hurts me a lot. I don’t blame you for what happened and I don’t fear you. But I do need you. You are one of my anchors in a turbulent world and without you I’m adrift.”
April sighed. “I find it hard to believe that some part of you isn’t terrified to be around me.”
“Then find out.”
Her mouth dropped. “What?”
“We are delta bonded and we can communicate through our twees. Why don’t you come in and see for yourself how I feel about you. If you do find out that I’m scared of you, we’ll both know and I can get started trying to work through it. If you don’t find anything,” his voice trailed off. “I’ll make sure my twee tells you if I’m trying to hide anything from you.”
I will. She needs to know the truth.
April stared at him for what seemed like a long time. “Now I’m scared. I’m scared to know.”
“We can’t stay like this, April. If this hasn’t already affected the family it will eventually.”
“I’ve been told it already is. Not that I’ve seen any sign of it but that’s what Ninhursag says.” She set her shoulders and closed her eyes. “Let’s do it.”
Iain’s eyes drifted shut and he relaxed in the chair. When they opened he directed a thought inward. How long?
Just a couple of minutes. She does want to believe you and so didn’t need a lot of persuasion.
April got up as she opened her eyes. She promptly settled down in his lap and curled up against his chest. “I’m sorry I didn’t believe you.”
“It’s ok. I am going to be twitchy about energy blades around me for a while.”
“I know, but too many people use them routinely. We’ll have to figure some kind of program to deal with your fear of them.”
“I don’t do therapy.”
“Desensitization therapy doesn’t use any drugs and it works, Iain. Canaan can use dreamtime to speed the process along.” She lifted her head from his chest when he chuckled. “What is it?”
“It only speeds the process for people outside of dreamtime. For the people inside it takes as long as it would out here.”
“Well, yes. I should have been more precise.” She put her head back against his chest. “Want to know something you might find funny?”
“What’s that?”
“I’ve thought about snapping Eve’s neck too.” She made a noise suspiciously like a giggle when his head jerked down to stare at the top of hers. “She is a bitch sometimes.”
“Doesn’t that disqualify you from helping me to keep from indulging those impulses?”
“No, it doesn’t. I know the difference between irritated fantasy and reality. From what you’ve shown me you may be having more of a problem telling the two apart.” She sighed, slid out of his lap and pulled him to his feet. “But we shouldn’t linger here. We both need our sleep.” She glanced around. “Why did you want to have this discussion here?”
“It’s got a teleport, telepathy and phase block so we could talk without any eavesdropping or accidental company.”
April looked shocked for an instant. “I’m surprised Canaan and Pandora haven’t tunneled their way in yet.”
“Eirian is standing outside to let anyone interested know that I’m with you and we’re all right.”
“Is she also preventing them from coming in when they ignore her?”
“She is.”
April’s eyes widened. “So there’s probably an angry Canaan out there, possibly with other unhappy members of our family?”
Eirian’s mind touched his. Yes.
“Yeah, probably.”
The Duelist shoved him gently towards the sealed hatch. “You go first then.”
***
(11/03/08 1220 Barton House, Old Austin, Texas League)
April glanced at the sky where her Dark Magician Girl did lazy circles. “Buck, Sally, Lisa and Carston are a couple of kilometers away.”
“Thanks.” Iain turned to the gray haired woman standing a short distance away. “Amanda?” She looked up. “The people you’re meeting will be here in a couple of minutes.”
“Thank you, sir. I’ll be waiting for your call.” She jogged towards the house.
A few minutes later Buck jumped off of Sally’s back and grabbed Iain’s hand. “Bless you for getting me out of the city.”
“Oh?”
Sally changed to her human form and laughed during the transformation. It was an odd sound transition, going from a melodious whistle call to human laughter. “There’s a certain pokegirl who wants to join our business.”
“Is that a problem?”
April grinned. “Let me guess, joining the business means joining the family?”
The Chocoboob nodded. “It does. She’s got a job right now that keeps her moving from city to city and she has to leave tomorrow, so she’ll be gone soon and with her schedule she can only harass him a couple of times a month.”
Carston Garrett slipped off of Lisa’s back and the Ponytaur changed to her human form as he chuckled. “You can just tell her no, Buck.”
“I’ve tried that. She’s insistent.”
“Buck’s too nice a man to tell her to piss off,” Sally explained. “And he won’t let me explain it in terms she can understand. He thinks I’ll kill her before it sinks in.”
“I see.” Garrett shook hands with Iain. “Why did you ask us out here, Grey?”
“Actually, I invited you and Lisa out here. Buck just came along to be meddlesome, apparently. I’ve got a problem and I’m going to hand it to you.”
Carston blinked and his eyes narrowed. “Are you now?”
“It’s a good problem. I’ve got some renters on my land and some of them want to meet you with a proposition.”
“Being Captain of the Rangers tends to take up all of my time, Iain. I don’t want any businesses.”
“This is Ranger business, Carston.” Iain smiled. “You’ve got your pokedex, I see. I’d like you to pull up the entry on a pokegirl called the Officerjenny.”
Garrett did so, as did Buck. The Ranger whistled softly. “Automatically knows the laws of the land they’re in and are completely incorruptible? What did they do in Sukebe’s service?”
“They didn’t. They weren’t developed until after the war was over.”
“Ok, what does that have to do with me?”
“Some of those renters are Officerjenny and they want to become Texas Rangers.”
Carston’s mouth sagged for a second and a gleam appeared in his eyes as he pulled it shut. “How many?”
“There are twenty five of them, plus a handful of tamers and seventeen steeds. The steeds are nine Ponytaur, six Rapitaur and two Pegasluts.”
Garrett’s mouth dropped again. “How many renters did you say you have?”
“I didn’t.”
“Iain,” April warned him softly.
He grimaced. “Sorry, Carston. I guess it’s not really a secret. There are over sixty thousand newcomers on my land, but most of them have other things to do than play policeman in Texas.”
“Sixty thousand?”
“Yeah, it’s a lot of immigrants. You’ll be hearing about them eventually. There are some military trained pokegirls and humans and a whole slew of civilians. Some of them have outstanding medical training and there are some qualified engineers and construction personnel.” He folded his arms. “And I would like to point out that they’re living on my property and I will not tolerate a swarm of freeloaders descending on them.”
“You’d better put out a shit load of signs, Iain.”
“We are already doing so.” April grinned. “They’ve got their own police, Captain Garrett, and they are not shy about enforcing the law.”
Garrett nodded. He looked at Lisa. “What do you think?”
The Ponytaur shrugged. “You keep saying that we need the help.” She looked at Iain. “Where are they?”
“They’re in the house, where they’re waiting for me to call them out to meet you. We felt it better to discuss the subject with you rather than spring a whole bunch of strangers on you without any warning.” Iain took his pokedex off his belt and activated the radio function. “Amanda, bring your group out.”
The door opened and the gray haired woman exited. She was followed by a mass of pokegirls, over half of which had blue hair in varying shades. A handful of humans came out behind the pokegirls. They all fell into a loose formation as the woman came to attention. Her hand twitched as if she was fighting to salute Iain. “Sir!”
Iain smiled slightly. “Captain Carston Garrett, this is Amanda Sawicki, the leader of this little band. Amanda, this is Carston Garrett. He’s the commander of the Texas Rangers, the Texas League’s law enforcement organization.”
Amanda stuck out her hand. “Colonel Amanda Sawicki, retired after twenty two years in service to the Sisterhood in base security and logistics.” She nodded towards the formation. They’d clumped in little groups of Officerjenny with, at most, one of the other pokegirl types. “That group there, with the two Officerjenny and the Rapitaur are my harem. The older Officerjenny is my alpha, Dora, while the younger one is our seventeen year old daughter Connie and technically not part of my harem. The Rapitaur is Sharon, who is in my harem.” Her smile shaved years off of her face. “I understand that Captain is the highest rank in the Rangers and that you’re the only Captain we’ll have. Fear not, sir, I will bear the humble rank of Ranger with pride.”
Carston took her hand and shook it warmly. “Well, Amanda, I was a colonel in the US Army. I would still be one but those league bastards staged a coup and replaced the US of A with their jerkwater nations. I think, however, that Ranger Sergeant would be a better fit for you. Since you understand the capabilities of your people better than I ever will, I’m making you second in command of this group.”
Amanda’s eyebrows rose. “That’s very gracious of you, Captain. Who will be my commander?”
“That would be Ranger Lieutenant Iain Grey.”
Iain blinked. “What?”
Carston looked like the cat that ate the canary. “You gave me a problem. I’m solving it. I don’t have a Ranger around that neck of the woods and now I’ve got a whole new Company A way ahead of my planned schedule to develop one in East Texas. They know you and you know them.” Iain opened his mouth to correct that statement and April elbowed him hard as Garrett continued, apparently without noticing the violence occurring in front of him. “So you’ll command the group on paper and Amanda here will be, like any good sergeant, the one who coordinates the regular day to day operations. And since you lucked out and she’s a logistical specialist, that’ll make your life even easier.” His satisfied smile became an amused grin. “I’ll expect reports monthly at the very least, and none of this video message bullshit. I want paper.”
“Considering I didn’t volunteer for this, you’ll be lucky if I ever contact you.”
April glared at Iain but her words were for Garrett. “Don’t worry; we’ll make sure he gets reports to you in a timely fashion.”
I do not want to be a Ranger.
Tough. It’ll please Lucifer and Eve no end and it won’t be that much work. In any case Amanda will do most of it for you.
Carston grinned wider. “You see that he does. Is there anything else I can do for you, Iain?”
Iain’s voice was toneless as he fought an urge to snap Carston’s neck. “No, I think you’ve done quite enough already.”
Buck was fighting a grin and failing. “Now, do you understand how I ended up working for the league? Lorena has the same nasty habit of handing people’s problems back to them as part of the solution. I don’t know who taught it to whom, but now they both do it.”
Iain snorted. “You just wait and see if I vote for her.”
Lisa laughed. “It won’t work. Too many people see her as good for the league. They don’t know about us poor overworked sods and how we are the reason she looks so good.”
Iain looked back at Amanda and grimaced before turning his attention back to Garrett. “Are you going to provide equipment or do I get to do that too?”
Garrett spread his hands apologetically. “You’ll get a stipend and a small fund for gear but most of what you’ll use is provided by the Rangers themselves. I will have badges made up and sent out along with the information on your patrol area. Just remember that although you have a patrol area your actual jurisdiction will be the entire league.” He motioned towards Lisa and she changed to her centaur form. “I need to get back to Austin and you need to get back to Sabine, Lieutenant.”
***
(11/09/08 0500 Grey Ranch, Texas League)
The floods hovering five meters from the ground were bright enough that their harsh glare threw sharp shadows from the Rangers standing in the formation, but the darkness around the parade ground completely swallowed the light at less than a dozen meters. It left them in a tiny realm bordered by the vast unknown, an apt description of the situation involving the world they’d just arrived in and one that filled many of the Rangers’ minds with unease.
Who is that? I don’t think I’ve seen him before.
The who in question was a young man standing with two Officerjenny and a Megami in the next group Iain was supposed to inspect. He wasn’t anyone Iain recognized and he looked extremely excited and very, very young. Hell, he looked too young to grow facial hair.
His twee supplied the information almost faster than he could formulate the question. That is Ranger Jean Philippe Fournier. He turned sixteen yesterday and joined Company A last night as a tamer. The Megami is Aneta. Both of them are from Noir in the other dimension. Fournier was an orphan picked up by the Sisterhood eight years ago in an ongoing program that uses foresight to find future celestial tamers. They’re both part of Amanda’s emergency recruiting policy for the Rangers. The Officerjenny with the short hair is Anita and the one with the braid is Madeline. In the other dimension was the current euphemism for the native world of the Sisterhood and Iain’s harem. Some members of the Sisterhood were reportedly already shortening it to IOD.
Like the other Rangers in Company A, the team wore new camouflage uniforms based off of the Army Combat Uniform used on Iain’s home world and designed by Theodora specifically for Company A. Iain had also made available the Improved Outer Tactical Vest that went with the ACU for everyone and nobody had turned them down despite the fourteen kilogram weight of the IOTV. Every one of them had been issued the GAR-10 and GM-1, all with the clan’s explosive ammunition instead of the FMJAP rounds he was providing for the Texas League. Iain and Amanda had considered issuing the GAR-15 and GM-2 for those with enhanced strength, but decided against it in order to keep logistical requirements for the unit as simple as possible.
He stopped in front of Fournier and his group and looked them over carefully. Both of the Officerjenny were impeccable in their uniforms and they’d apparently taken Fournier in hand as he was too, but the Megami had a couple of small loose strings on hers. He looked at Amanda standing beside him with her pokedex ready. “Aneta, strings on uniform.” One of the Officerjenny’s eyes twinkled and Iain suspected that friction within the newly formed harem was the reason that the Megami hadn’t been subjected to the same uniform inspection that Fournier probably had undergone. Amanda wrote down Iain’s observation and eyed the Megami balefully.
Fournier’s group was the last one so Iain stepped back and nodded to Amanda. The human woman turned to face the company. “Company A, attention!” Everyone snapped from parade rest to attention. “Dismissed!”
Iain watched them scatter. “You do realize that we are not going to do this every day. I am not a martinet and I don’t have time for spit and polish.”
Amanda smiled warmly. “Neither do I, but this is the founding day for the company and a certain amount of ceremony on that day every year is important. I’ll give the people I wrote up some extra duty and that’ll be that.”
“Just remember that the historical record for the Texas Rangers says they’re far more interested in results than appearances. They didn’t really start playing dress up until they got moved to the DPS and became political.”
“DPS?”
“The Texas Department of Public Safety ran the Texas Highway Patrol which was the Texas state police. Eventually the Texas government decided to roll the Rangers into the DPS sphere of control for ease of operations and to prevent duplicating work. It worked about as well as you could expect until they eased the old guard out.”
Dominique cleared her throat. “Iain, it’s time to go. We have a schedule for this morning, remember?”
Iain sighed. “Excuse me, Amanda. I’m off to training so my pokegirls can work me to death.”
Dominique shook her head as Amanda laughed. “Actually, first we have a meeting with some guy from Austin. He’s got a letter of introduction from Ellen Thompson.”
Iain grabbed her hand. “Lead on.”
Dominique took him to the employee house’s dining room where Allison and Ryan were watching a strange man and two identical young women with bright green hair where they sat at one of the tables. Plates littered with the remains of food in front of all three indicated they’d been offered the chance to eat. The women were wearing identical strapless jumpsuits, although one was wearing a blue and white outfit while the other’s was canary yellow with black stripes. The Archmage moved to stand behind Iain’s chair when he sat down. “The man is Mark Prochazka and the two pokegirls are Lauren and Bette. They are Witches. Mark, ladies, this is Iain Grey.”
Iain shook hands with all three before sitting down as Dominique took up station behind him. “I haven’t read Ellen’s letter yet so how about you start from beginning with why you’re here.”
Mark took a deep breath. “Well, sir, I want to start a business.” Iain was interested to note that Mark had a thick West Texas accent, but then a lot of Czechoslovakian people had colonized Texas over the years. “You see, one of the problems in all of the cities people are still living in is that there’s no electricity. Since there’s no electricity there’s a lot of services that can’t be maintained, and even if they could the state, er league, isn’t going to keep them up anyways and nobody is all that interested in building a utility since there aren’t any monopolies anymore. My problem is that there isn’t any running water. Now some enterprising man has already bought a decent stretch of the riverfront and is charging people a small amount to use that area for getting water from the river, but he charges by the barrel or bucket and I won’t be able to afford that for my idea.”
Iain folded his arms. “Ok, the first thing you’re supposed to do is a strong lead that includes what your idea is. Dancing around it just annoys the potential investor.”
“We want to build a public bath,” the Witch in the yellow jumpsuit blurted out.
The one in blue grabbed her by the arm. “Mark is supposed to be doing this.” The one in yellow jerked her arm free and rubbed the red mark left by the first’s grip.
Iain held up a hand. “Ok, who is who?”
The one in yellow shot the one in blue a glare. “I’m Lauren and that’s Bette. Bette’s worried that we’ll say the wrong thing and queer the deal.” Bette groaned softly. “You are!”
“You’re not supposed to say that out loud,” the other Witch moaned quietly.
Iain chuckled. “It’s ok, ladies. You want to open a public bath. I presume it’s in Austin.” Mark nodded. “What did you want from me?”
“We’ve already bought the land and the buildings are being built. Unfortunately I’ve run into two snags. I was going to build a short pipeline to the river and pump water to the baths but somehow I missed a chunk of land on the route, someone else purchased it and they won’t let me buy rights across it. On top of that, there has been a spike in the attacks on woodcutters and the price of firewood has skyrocketed. I was about to give up when Ellen suggested that I talk to you about having your girls teach Bette and Lauren some water making and long duration fire spells.” He sighed. “But I’m out of money to pay you for them.”
Dominique put her hands on Iain’s shoulders. “I did read Ellen’s letter and in it she suggests that we take a ten percent interest in the baths with Mark having the option of buying us out after two years. According to her there’s plenty of water for drinking but not really enough for regular bathing. She thinks Mark’s bathhouse would be a significant financial success.”
Iain looked up at her. “What do you think?”
“If we’re going to attach our name to this business I think we need to go further than what either Mark or Ellen suggested.”
Mark’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean? I am not giving up the business.”
The Archmage smiled reassuringly. “No, that’s not what I mean. I mean that we, mostly I, should teach your girls a few others spells too. A spell that sterilizes the area around the caster would be useful. It’s so you can kill bacterial growth in the bathhouse and the baths in order to keep disease and algae from becoming a problem. And if you’re going to have a fridigarium I’d suggest your girls learn a couple of ice spells. And with water making and ice spells you could have a second business selling ice blocks and possibly refrigerators.”
Bette’s eyes lit up. “Ice sure, but I wouldn’t want to make anything that involves labor and woodworking is hard.”
Iain frowned slightly. “I think Ellen is right and you’ve got a great idea. I’d want ten percent of all the businesses and you’d have the option of buying out our share after two years at the market value of all of the businesses at the time the sale goes through. If you do not or cannot buy me out in that second year, after that I can refuse to sell my interest in your enterprises. In return, during the time period I own a stake in your bathhouse I won’t finance anyone else opening a bathhouse in Austin or sell them the spells we’ll be teaching your ladies here for the same purpose. If I negotiate similar deals with people for bathhouses in other communities there will be a stipulation that they do not open a bath in Austin. If you need further investment we’ll negotiate as we go.”
Mark thought about what Iain had said. “That seems reasonable enough.”
“What if we open a bathhouse in another city,” Bette asked.
“I’d suggest that expanding in Austin first would be a better business model, but if you reach the point where you’re looking at other cities I certainly wouldn’t want to destroy a business that I’m profiting from. I will not wait for you to expand before I make similar deals with people in other communities, but if I have already made a deal with someone in that city I’ll let you know before you expand. After that the decision is up to you.” He eyed the three of them briefly. “Of course, I can only warn you about expanding into a city with competition if I know about your expansion plans beforehand.”
“You won’t try to tell us how to run our business?”
Iain smiled. “As a ten percent shareholder I wouldn’t be on any board of directors and therefore, no, I wouldn’t try to tell you what you should do. I may make suggestions, but there’s little I can do if you ignore them. Oh, and I will not, for the first two years, sell my interest in your business to anyone else. If you fail to purchase my interest at the appropriate time, it becomes mine to do with as I please.”
Mark nodded and held out his hand. “That sounds like a good deal, Mr. Grey.”
“My name is Iain.” Iain started to say something else but stopped himself.
Dominique interjected herself into the discussion smoothly. “I believe you were teleported here and your ride is waiting to take you back to Austin. We’ll make arrangements to meet with you again in a few days and start teaching your girls the spells.” She nodded to Allison, who led them out of the room. “What is it, Iain?”
He looked slightly embarrassed. “I started to say that my father was Mr. Grey, but that’s not true. I am Iain Grey, but that’s not who I was before I came here.”
“Who were you?”
“It’s not important. I am Iain Grey. Now let’s get to our next appointment.”
***
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
Lake Employees
Heltu - Wet Queen
6 Wet Elves