Wallace

Constance's mouth was a grim line, and her brows were furrowed as she knelt in the dirt, working with a small trowel. The sun had hardly risen, and she already looked exhausted. Her shoulders were slumped, and when she looked up at me as I approached, I saw dark circles under her eyes.

"Constance," I said with a nod.

Her trowel hit the ground with a clink, and she rested back on her haunches, "Lord Wallace."

I lifted my chin in her direction, "How are you doing?"

She looked down at herself, lifted her hands and let them fall, "I'd like to thank you for letting me stay here, and everyone has been kind and polite. There's even little difference between my lodgings here and what I had in Parabuteo, and the food Amity prepares is worthy of royalty. But while I appreciate the respect you have shown my person, I would not be averse to a different arrangement. I would prefer it, in fact."

"Uhh..."

Constance leaned back and brought her clenched fists close to her neck, "Amity has had me working outside since almost the moment you left. She said my housekeeping skills were lacking and has given me only tasks such as this," she sighed and looked down at her hands. Covered in dirt and rough with callouses, they hardly looked as if they belonged to a noblewoman.

"I'm not going to take advantage of you-"

"You would not be," she urged, "Gods, humans can be so innocent. I am not some blushing maiden unfamiliar with the ways of the world. I have ruled- had ruled, for quite some time. I know what it means to be at another's mercy, and if I am to be a trophy, I would at least be a comfortable trophy.

"No," I replied flatly, "And it's not innocence or a lack of experience. It's history. Humans have got a hell of a lot of it, and we're probably better educated about our own history than anyone else on this rock. At one time or another, humans ran themselves very much like the elves or fey. One thing all of us- Simon, me, and especially Cassius can agree on is that history sucked. Simon's getting awfully fucking close to the line, but even he has a limit. You're not a trophy, Constance. But the part of history that the three of us like the least is all the bullshit about royalty and nobility. The only reason I let people call me Lord Wallace is I'm tired of correcting them."

"Is that why I've been relegated to such tasks? To put me in my place, as it were?"

"That and Val finds it really funny, yeah," I admitted, "And the truth is, work like this needs doing."

"And I have little else to offer," Constance grimaced and hesitated for a moment before speaking, "I can't help but feel that Lady Valentine's skills are equally limited, and the only difference is she has the privilege of sharing your bed."

"The difference is Valentine has magic, and aside from teaching me, has been helping me work on the enchantments that have made this place so nice to live in," I said sternly, "I'll talk to Amity, but you should talk to Felicity. She's already teaching magic to Amity and Regina. If you want to get out of the dirt for good, magic will be the way to do it."

"If I learn from Felicity, I will not be assigned chores such as this?" she hoped.

"No, but you'll be able to get them done a lot faster, and without getting your hands dirty."

"I suppose that's acceptable."

I fell into one of the seats near the fireplace in our private bar and leaned over to peer at the bar.

"Where's Val?" I frowned.

Regina rested upon a thick pile rug before the fire with her head held high. Beside her was Amity. The gynoid had both sets of arms around Regina's shoulders, and her face was half-buried in the sphinx's thick mane.

"Upstairs, watching Constance dig our new garden," Amity smirked.

I rolled my eyes, "Of course she is. Is there any particular reason you've been going so hard on Constance, or can you let up a bit?"

"I was feeding Regina. Constance said my manner was unladylike," the gynoid explained.

"Ah."

"She was right, of course," Amity giggled, "But I was quite miffed that she thought to tell us our business."

"Well, I think she's learned her lesson."

"Okay, okay," she laughed, "I'll get her working back inside."

"I shall speak with the one-time noble," Regina promised, "She has begun to understand her place, but your approach, and that of Amity, are foreign to her. I will speak with her and hope to instil a greater understanding. You have brought me true joy for the first time in my life. I hope to share that with Constance."

"Well- Um, you're welcome, I guess," I stammered.

"Val's right. It's so cute when you blush," Amity cheered.

"Lord Wallace is a humble ruler. A lesser man would expect such praise. That he is abashed by such praise is only proof of worthiness, you should not tease him so," Regina insisted haughtily, though I could see her stifling a smirk.

I appreciated what she was saying. It was an affirmation that I might actually have something worthwhile here. But it's not as if her words made me blush less.

I rubbed my eyes with the heels of my hands, "Did you have a chance to check on Val?"

"Changing the subject, I see," Amity teased, "But yes, I did. One of the sensors on my medical limb tracks the blood's oxygen content-"

"A blood oximeter?" I guessed, "Is hers low?"

She nodded, "An oximeter, yes. But that is the curious part. Measured as a percentage, her blood oxygen level is about ninety-eight percent."

"Is that a normal figure?" Regina asked.

"It is for humans," I supplied, "Should be between ninety-five and a hundred. Is that not the problem, then? I doubt two percent will make much of a difference."

"That's just it," Amity added excitedly, "The absolute amount of oxygen in her blood is far lower than I'd have thought possible. If she were human, she'd be dead."

"I guess that makes sense," I frowned, "The cartilage skeleton is weird but shouldn't impact her endurance. But her blood is purple, so it's got to be different somehow. Do you know what metal it's based on?"

"It's still iron," Amity assured me, "And though I have difficulty trying to sense the specific structure, it is much different from that of Regina, and her biology a mix of human and feline."

"Both of which have haemoglobin," I nodded, "You check any of the others yet?"

"Elfin blood is copper-based. Hemocyanin, I believe?" Amity guessed.

"Sounds about right and explains the colour. Makes me wonder what's up with gnomes, goblins, and sprites. You already explain what that means to Felicity and Phoebe?"

"Yes. Cassius is with Phoebe now. They're testing his blood magic trick."

"Copper is what, fire, electricity, and healing? Kinda jealous. Iron only gives me Movement and Protection."

"And metal, of course," Amity insisted, "Healing is nice to have, but having such a useful verb like Movement at your fingertips is significant."

"True enough."

"Have you any ideas as to how you might see to Lady Valentine's troubles?"

I shrugged, "The body is an engine. I just need to figure out a supercharger enchantment. It shouldn't even be that difficult. Only hard part will be keeping it from going too far."

"We speak of Lady Valentine," Regina observed, "It is far too late for such worries."

I found Val on our balcony. She had folded her arms on the railing and rested her chin on her forearms. As expected, she was watching Constance work and had a dreamy, slightly flushed expression on her face.

"Leave the poor girl alone," I chided, "God, you're incorrigible."

Val looked at me over her shoulder and wiggled her hips, "So we're not doing this on the balcony then?"

"And have them hear you clear out to the village? No, come the hell inside. I think I've figured out how we can fix your stamina issues."

Val threw her arms up in the air and ran towards me, "Yes!" she cheered.

I caught her as she leapt and carried her back inside.

"Phew, set me down on the couch," she panted, "I maybe pushed it a bit far just then."

I took a seat, and Val shifted around until she sat across my lap, leaning her head against my shoulder.

"Well, let's see if we can do something about that. Did Amity explain what she found?"

"Something about my blood storing less oxygen than if I were human. You seek to improve this?"

"It's tricky, but yes."

"It is?"

"Yeah. I don't know about Fey, but in humans, too much oxygen can be toxic. But it usually comes about by breathing an atmosphere with more than the usual amount of oxygen. Divers, for example," I provided, "They breathe from a tank of compressed gas, and if it's too high for too long, they start to suffer the effects. But I'm not messing with the atmosphere. I'd be letting your blood absorb more of what's already there."

"Which is to say?"

"I have a vague, half-remembered idea of what level of oxygen in the atmosphere is safe. But I have no damn clue what a safe level of oxygen in the blood is."

"What are the effects of oxygen toxicity?" Val raised an eyebrow, "Need I worry?"

"Dizziness, trouble breathing, lung damage, muscle spasms, seizures, blindness, and death."

"Oh, is that all?"

"Good news is that if the change is gradual, the effects are minor, and you can fully recover without too much trouble," I hesitated, "Or at least it's the case for humans."

Val pulled herself up and kissed me on the cheek, "We both know we will be trying this regardless of the risk. I trust you, Wally. We'll be careful, and take it slow," she gave my ear a playful nibble, "And when we need to test it, you can bend me over to the piano and bugger me till I pass out."

"You know this isn't going to work on the first time, right? We'll probably need to test this several-" she gave me a wry look, and I stopped talking and sighed, "Right, sorry, forgot who I was talking to."

I found Val to be a little trying sometimes. Still panting with exertion, she was already asking to try a second, more potent version of the spell, but I turned her down as gently as I could.

I knew that the side effects of oxygen toxicity would take time to manifest, and our particular method of testing made it hard to tell the cause of dizziness, muscle spasms, and shortness of breath, so it was best to have her relax for a while.

Besides, I found that I lacked Val's appetite. If presented with a box of chocolates, I'd be pleased with one or two. But Val wouldn't be satisfied till she devoured the entire thing. It's not that I minded satiating her appetite. I mean, come on, it's hard to complain about a fairy princess begging you for attention. But sometimes that could be a bit much for me.

Most of the time, it was enough to appreciate her company and to feel her gentle weight leaning against me. I wanted to run my fingers through her hair and to ask her about this or that. Sharing a quiet moment with her was the only time I didn't feel like some kind of freak.

So after lunch, I found the treats I'd stashed- it actually was a box of chocolates in this case -and used them as bait to draw Val back into my lap while I worked on the silks Irony had measured for me. Just having her close while I worked helped me relax, and while I wondered if there was something to what Constance had said, I found it hard to care.

I didn't recognize the shift she was wearing, she must have picked it up in Caniforma, but I liked it. It was thicker than either of the others I'd seen her wearing, but was much shorter, barely reaching the top of her thighs. Val didn't seem to mind that it was riding up a little, and I took guilty pleasure in the cute little noises of encouragement she made when I'd nuzzle her hair, stroke her back, or run my fingers across her body, just because I could.

The fibres were raw and undyed, though this is silk I'm talking about, so it's not as if the stuff is rough. Raw silk is a little sturdier, though, and I figured that any Strengthen enchantment would be more effective if it had a strong foundation.

Val made a show of putting her ear up against my temple and tapped her chin thoughtfully, "My, I can hear those gears grinding away," she sat back down in my lap and bowed her head to carefully consider her next selection from the box of chocolates, "So, what's your plan?"

"I've got two ideas. First one is just a simple strengthening enchantment to make the silk tougher, and the second is to do some shock-hardening. The first one should be easy, but I'm less sure about the second."

Valentine selected a chocolate, taking it between thumb and forefinger, "Strengthening enchantments are not as simple as they seem," she warned, "Not with a material like silk. Strengthening something homogenous is easy, but with silk, you need to take care not to turn it into a rigid sheet. Not only that, strengthen the strands all you like, but it will do little if the blade can force its way between the threads."

Val popped the chocolate in her mouth and began hunting for another.

I took up the cloth and ran it through my fingers, "Hmm, hadn't thought of that," I muttered.

The silk was a single layer, and while I had two sets of silk that I could layer together, it would leave me without a backup. It would also make the garment thicker and a bit less flexible, meaning it would be more bothersome to make it part of my usual wardrobe.

No, the whole point was to make something I could wear all the time. If I was going to sacrifice comfort, I may as well wear mail and brigandine.

"I bet a Movement enchantment would work. Move Animal, I think, because it's silk?" I guessed.

"To keep the threads together?"

"Yeah, that alone should make the silk harder to penetrate. The fibres themselves are stronger than steel, but it's like you said, the problem comes when the blade forces the threads apart."

Val raised her eyebrows, "That's clever. If it's been done in that manner before, I've not heard of it."

"How is it usually done?"

"Transform is used to meld the threads together, though in doing so, you give up what makes silk so useful in the first place."

I nodded thoughtfully, "It wouldn't be breathable. It'd be like wearing a bunch of garbage bags as clothing."

"It's why my jumpsuit is such a treasure, but there have been so few attempts to replicate it. Successful attempts, at least."

"Hold on, I should get some scraps to test on-"

Val pawed at my chest in a vain attempt to keep me from getting up, "Ay! No!" she protested.

Val got her arms around my neck, and I slipped an arm underneath to lift her up. She gave me a good-natured grumble while I carried her along to the little collection of supplies I had on a side table.

"You could have tested on my shift," Val offered.

"Val. I'm not cutting off your clothes."

"Aww," she pouted.

"Fine, I'm not cutting off your clothes right now."

I dug through the pile of cloth with my free hand until I found a few patches of silk, and since I was there anyway, I fished out a short length of gold chain from our collection of salvaged jewellery. I brought them back over to the couch, and Val scrambled around behind me. She draped her arms around my neck and rested her chin on my shoulder.

The silk was already made of 'Animal', as it were, so all I needed to provide was a bit of Movement mana from a bobby pin, which I clipped onto the square of cloth.

Val nuzzled the back of my ear, "So?" she prompted.

"I'm going to join the threads together as if they were links in a chain," I explained absently, my mind on the enchantment, "Each will be linked to those to either side. Should keep it flexible, but the 'chain' will keep the threads from pulling apart."

I cast the enchantment and then rotated the cloth ninety degrees to do those threads that were perpendicular to the first set.

"Alright, now where-"

Val produced a stiletto and offered it to me hilt-first.

I stared at the knife in bewilderment and then twisted my neck to look back at her, "Where the hell were you hiding that?"

"You could always strip-search me," she grinned.

I shook my head in exasperation and took the blade. I worked it against the cloth and tried to tease the tip between the threads.

"Huh, seems like that worked."

"Did it?" she frowned, "Because I see a hole."

"Yeah, but look here, only because it cut through the threads. Look how tidy the cut is. The spell is even keeping the ends from fraying," I offered Val the gold chain, "Can you-?"

"Sure."

She took it and handed back a single length of chain, which I carefully slid under the end of the bobby pin.

I added the Strength component of the enhancement and tried the knife again.

"Please don't stab yourself in the leg," Val sighed.

"It'll be fine, it's fine, see? The knife won't even go through now. I'll want to test it with my axe, but I think we've got a good thing here."

Val reached over my shoulder to take the cloth, "We should enchant some of my shifts with this," she mused.

"We will," I agreed, "We'll have to figure out how to work the iron and gold in, though. Sticking a bobby pin on the cuff isn't exactly a permanent solution."

"I believe I have one with some silver decoration around the neckline," she recalled, "I'll see how they did it and try to copy their design."

"For now, though, you should get dressed. Sun's going down," I observed, nodding out at the horizon, "And I'd like to get dinner before Cassius shows us whatever it is has caught his attention."

"See? This is why Simon surrounds himself with women. There's none of this 'dressing for dinner' nonsense," she teased.

I hesitated to put a label on what Val and I had, mainly because I'm a coward who's terrified of commitment, but with Amity, there was no doubt. I loved the woman. God, did she make everything so much better.

She carried an entire dining table up the stairs to the roof, without Val or I even hearing and had already laid out the table with place settings and candles before bringing all of us up to the roof.

Constance was right. The food was fit for royalty, and it was only enhanced by a sunset on the horizon and a cool breeze blowing across the table, tugging lightly on the candle flames.

Amity had gone as far as preparing a separate dish for each of us, though like me, Cassius had also opted for red meat and roast vegetables. Val, close at my right, had opted for pasta. Not that it had stopped her from spearing bits of steak off my plate.

I knew Regina was still having some trouble with magic, but I was reasonably sure she was far enough along to have fed herself. Nonetheless, Amity was feeding Regina bits of meat that had been drowned in a selection of sauces, and giggling as the Sphinx licked her fingers clean. Not that I could fault either of them.

Cassius and Phoebe were not fawning over each other to quite the same extent, but they had taken adjacent seats and were speaking softly as they ate. Cassius had absolutely fucked up with the girls from the village, but Phoebe seemed willing to look past it, and I hoped they could patch things up.

That left Constance and Felicity. Perhaps she'd taken a nap since I'd seen her, but Constance was already looking better. I didn't foresee any romantic entanglement there, but they seemed to be getting along, with Constance hanging on Felicity's every word. When I caught a scrap of conversation discussing mana types, I gathered that Constance had taken my recommendation to heart.

We'd all finished our meals, and I was just waiting for Amity to return so I could turn the conversation to business, but my plan was thrown into disarray when Amity returned bearing two more trays.

"Do you ever stop?" I laughed, "What's this?"

"Dessert!" Val cheered.

Amity's smile lit up her face, and she whisked away the covers, revealing freshly baked brownies and vanilla ice cream. Amity, ever helpful, only provided one plate and one fork to Val and me, and another to Cassius and Phoebe.

Val didn't even bother to reach for the fork, leaving it to me, though I ended up feeding her most of our desert. As for the couple across the table, well, I couldn't help but smirk when Phoebe took the fork gently from Cassius's grasp.

I leaned back and turned to regard Amity, "Any more surprises, or can we get down to business?"

Amity gave a little flick of the wrist, "By all means."

I jerked a thumb over my shoulder, "Cassius, this what you're talking about?"

I'd already stolen a look while the others were working on their desserts and had seen the steady white-yellow sky glow emanating from beyond the western horizon.

"Wh-" Cassius froze, Phoebe's fork halfway to his mouth, "Uh, yeah. Gotta be a city, right?"

"Yeah. When Amity first mentioned the glow, I figured it might be a forest fire or something, but I don't think that's the case now."

"It's been a couple days," Cassius pointed out, "If it were a wildfire, the tide would have taken it out."

"Well, it could be up a mountainside or something, but yeah, I still think you're right. Probably a city. We're gonna go check it out."

Cassius was taken aback, "You are?"

"Who is 'we'?" Val asked at the same time.

I spread my hands, "Just think. Someone's still got to deliver the movies and the hardware to Simon, and if yesterday's any indication, the people coming after you aren't going to stop," I explained, nodding towards Val, "So here's what I'm thinking. By now, the book we sent along to Temerity will have arrived. We send out some messages saying you and I will be away from the hotel for a while and that our 'stewards' will be running things-"

"Oh yeah, and who are your stewards exactly?" Cassius huffed.

"All you guys," I replied with a grin, "Politics isn't that hard. You guys can figure it out-"

"Not that hard, excuse me?" Phoebe exclaimed.

"Annoying, sure," I allowed, "But not that hard. Cassius is American, he knows what I'm talking about. But whatever, it probably won't come up, and that's not the point. The point is, it won't take long for the nobility in Pelignos to realize we're not hanging around at The Maiden or anywhere else in the three cities."

"You want them to know you're checking out stuff around the hotel?" Cassius asked.

"Exactly," I agreed, "It's a pain in the ass to get to the hotel without wheels, but it's not impossible. We saw that when those horsemen chased us all the way to Caniforma. Those were some serious fucking spellcasters they sent after us. They're not screwing around any more. So they're going to come after us again. That's a foregone conclusion at this point."

"You're gonna prep an ambush," Cassius realized.

"Is that wise?" Phoebe cautioned, "Choosing the right ground is difficult enough when the territory is familiar. Arranging such an engagement in unknown ground that poses unknown threats would concern me."

"Normally, you'd be right," I agreed, "I mean, probably. I'm hardly a tactician. I wouldn't call Arma and Total War simulations, exactly," I threw up my hands, "But whatever, that's not the point. The point is that a human city may as well be an alien planet as far as a fey is concerned. I'll know what the hell is going on, and whoever's after us will be too busy gawping up at buildings the height of mountains."

"You just, you know you gotta be careful, right?" Cassius warned, "Even if they still got light, that city is not gonna be a nice place to be."

That kinda killed my excitement, but he was right, and I nodded solemnly, "Another reason we need to go check things out."

With the exception of Regina, the rest of the table was looking between Cassius and me with evident confusion.

"You wanna?"

"Sure," I agreed and turned to regard the rest of the table, "Human cities are big. Multiple millions of people big."

Phoebe opened and closed a hand, "How is a city of such a size even fed?"

"By a constant stream of transport trucks and freight trains, bringing in food and other supplies from hundreds of miles away."

"Oh dear," Felicity breathed.

"Yeah. So let's hope to god that the mists did their usual trick and brought the land but not the people. Because if it brought both, then there is utter chaos just a day or two's drive to the west."

"And they'll have cars," Cassius added.

"It does make one wonder," Regina chimed in, "Several days have passed since we noticed the light in the distance, and it's possible it was present for some days before it caught our collective eye. How does it still stand?"

"Everything's got to get here eventually, right?" Cassius shrugged, "Hotel got dropped off on top of this hill, could be the same with the city."

"Perhaps, but do not forget, I am from a world with cities such as your own. It's true, I was never permitted to visit Earth, but from orbit, I could see the reach of humanity's sprawl."

"Fair point. That much light," Cassius nodded towards the horizon, "Probably gonna be a damn big city."

"Who shall accompany you?" Phoebe asked.

"I was hoping to keep the team small-"

Cassius rolled his eyes, "Come on, dude, you're gonna be driving around in a flatbed anyways, stop being a dumbass and bring some help."

"Amity and I shall accompany you," Regina volunteered.

"We will? Yes, we will!"

"There you go, Constance," I chuckled, "You wanted more work inside, well now you're gonna get it."

"The rest of us will remain here?" Phoebe inquired, "Who will be responsible for the hotel while you are away?"

"Yeah," I agreed, "And it's like I said, you're all my stewards. Hotel staff, that's Cassius. Housekeeping is up to Constance. Congratulations. If someone comes by, you can talk to them, and if you really need to, I guess you can write to us with your book."

"You would have me speak for the group?" Phoebe asked incredulously.

"Why not? You and Regina are probably tied for third place when it comes to the whole diplomacy thing, and she's coming with me. So you're up."

"Don't worry, Fee," Val assured her, "If Wally can do it, anyone can do it."

"Alright, if that's how it's gonna be," Cassius yawned, "I've already got a flash drive loaded up with all the movies. I take it this guy's already got a way to power whatever TV we give him?"

"Oh, probably. But not all the movies. I only promised him everything up to Infinity War."

It took Cassius a second, but then he leaned back in his chair and shook his head, "Dude."

Phoebe, surprisingly enough, seemed to catch on as well and brought a hand to her mouth to conceal a grin, "My my, I should take care not to find myself across the negotiating table from yourself, Lord Wallace."

"You two got to the end of the Infinity Saga, I take it? You guys are lucky. You didn't need to wait a year between Infinity and Endgame. But I had to suffer, and so does Simon."