Wallace

Rocks were hardly in short supply, but even I had to take multiple trips for more supplies. Though Valentine glowered at me each time I passed, she was making progress. The wreckage was a little better organized with each pass, as wood and metal were gradually consolidated into separate piles with the piano keys in a small heap nearby.

While Val was busy with her chores, the rest of the team were hard at work bolstering the defences on the outer wall.

I looked up at them as I passed the wall on my way back and forth, and as with Val, the battlements stretched a little further each time I saw them.

I nodded to Regina and Amity as I passed them on the ramp. They were headed back up with a load of tree trunks, using a combination of magic and Regina's raw strength to haul the freshly stripped logs.

I reached the bottom of the ramp and looked up to see how their work was coming along.

They had only transmuted the section nearest the gatehouse. A test, I imagined, to ensure their design would work, while the rest was left as wood, so it was easier to go back and fix any mistakes.

Logs stuck out from the top of the wall at regular intervals, extending half a yard or so and spaced about a yard apart. Placed along the tips were the actual battlements with the logs laid perpendicular, stacked and cut to form crenelations. The open spaces were intentional and formed machicolations, which is a fancy french word that means "hole you can throw stuff through". In the medieval era, that would have been boiling oil, big rocks, that sort of thing. For us, that mostly meant spells, maybe bullets.

I circled the hill, sticking to the strip of land that stood below the hotel's foundations but was high enough to avoid the tide. The gnomes had already been by to stake off the section I'd promised them, but there had yet to be any actual construction. I picked rocks out of the ground as I went but left their area alone.

I always seemed to find more rocks, no matter how careful I'd been on the previous pass, but it wasn't long before I'd finish a circuit with only half as many stones as I needed. From then on, I ventured into the forest that surrounded the hotel today.

It would have been wise to keep some sort of record. A catalogue of the terrain that showed up each day, something to give me an idea of what was probable, maybe an examination of any trends.

I bent to pick up the next stone, tossed it in my bucket, and then withdrew my notepad. Temperate forest, fairly equal mix of deciduous and conifer.

The best time to start would have been our first day at the hotel, but the second-best time was now.

Even without a complete study of the terrain, having lived here for a while now, I had a general idea of what to expect. It was nearly always grassland or forest, with each about as probable as the other. Though I suppose tree cover was a little more probable than none at all, as even grassland was not uniform.

I put the notepad away and lifted my bucket, heading back to the hotel. A wheelbarrow would have made life easier, but there hadn't been one among the hotel's limited selection of landscaping supplies. Considering how little there was, I wasn't sure the hotel had even done its own landscaping. They didn't even have a lawnmower, which had disappointed both myself and Cassius. Whether electric or gas, a small portable motor like that would have been pretty useful.

I stomped back up the ramp and turned my head to survey the others as they worked on the next section of battlements.

I grinned when I saw Amora. Even Constance had picked up some magic while I'd been away, eager to avoid doing the menial tasks. Or at least, doing the menial tasks without the assistance of magic. Her abilities were limited, but at least she could do her bit to help manoeuvre the logs into place.

Amora, by comparison, was utterly without magic. Yes, Felicity gave her a tattoo, and I enchanted it, as I had for the others. But if Val was any indication, the strength boost didn't suddenly make the recipient enjoy manual labour.

That left Amora running around in an attempt to look busy while doing her best to avoid actually doing anything.

I shook my head and kept on walking.

I received another glower from Val and headed inside. I'd already finished the entrance and ground floor windows, so I made my way up to the next floor and set my bucket of rocks down in front of the next window.

I hauled over a nearby chair and sat down.

Strengthening the glass was actually a spell rather than an enchantment. The concept was similar to the spell the others used to petrify the wood used to construct the battlements. An enchantment was an ongoing effect, while a spell, at least in this case, was an instantaneous effect.

I didn't need an ongoing effect to strengthen the glass like I did for the tattoos. I needed to change the material properties of the glass, and once the properties changed, that was it. Just like we didn't need to keep pouring mana into the logs to keep them in their petrified state, I didn't need ongoing mana to make the glass stronger.

People don't typically think of glass as a strong material, and in some ways, that's true. But glass is actually pretty damn hard. Unfortunately, it also happens to be extremely rigid. Hard, rigid, don't those mean the same thing? Well, not quite.

Spring steel is hard, but it's also very flexible. Flexible, as in not rigid.

This is the sort of shorthand description that would drive a material engineer crazy, but the simple way to think of it is that if some force would cause either to flex, spring steel will bend while glass will shatter.

So my strengthening enchantment was less about actual strengthening and more about enhancing the glass's flexibility.

The spell I used was a unique application of Weaken Earth that affected only the material's rigidity while leaving its other properties as they were.

The windows were already reasonably tough. Building codes in mid and high-rise structures mean you can't use the same sort of glass that might be present in your own home. They have to be rated for a given impact, and I'm sure you've heard that a full-grown man could throw themselves at such a window, only to bounce off. These windows were of that sort.

But I didn't need to worry about someone throwing themselves through a window. I had enemy spellcasters to contend with. Arresting the momentum of a running man with a window isn't actually that hard. It's a lot of force, sure, but spread over a wide surface. Even a material as rigid as glass can manage that.

Take a car window, for example. You'll have a hell of a time smashing it with your fist, it'll be a little easier with your elbow, but a hammer will smash right through.

I doubted Simon's fey were going to run around throwing hammers, but their spells would conjure exactly the tightly focused impacts that I needed to guard against.

And if my tests were any indication, my spell worked just fine. The impact-rated glass formed a strong foundation, and the enhanced flexibility gave it properties on-par with steel.

I actually had to dial it back after the first couple applications, as when I went to test the glass, it flexed so much that the sheet popped out of the window frame and fell to the ground in one piece.

After that I began to include a spell to beef up the window frames, and the result was pretty promising. Beat on any one of the windows enough, and it'd break eventually, but it would stand up to gunfire in the meantime.

I worked my way through the windows on the second floor, getting about a quarter of the way through before my bucket was empty.

I slipped my arm through the bucket's handle and pulled out the communications book. There was a bench out on the balcony, so I ducked out of the room and took a seat.

Below, Val continued to work diligently. Further in the distance, slightly muffled by the cool breeze, I could hear the others shouting and laughing about one thing or another.

I flipped to Simon's page, and like the last dozen times I checked, found it blank.

I leaned back against the bench and sighed, gazing out at the horizon.

Simon's a fool.

However he accomplished it, the dude had a ton of resources and an abundance of eager, beautiful women. If he was smart, he would have kept to himself and enjoyed life. Instead, he'd tried to take over a whole damn city.

I watched as the breeze ruffled the treetops and wondered if Simon had many chances to sit, relax, and take in the view.

And now the guy wants all this too? I would have thought consolidating his hold on the city would take priority. What, does he not have enough to do in a day?

I certainly didn't want to deal with all that nonsense. After the actual business of developing some reliable non-lethal spells, it was my biggest worry. If we won, which I thought was a distinct possibility, where the hell would that leave me?

I'd just gone through all the trouble to shake off the mantle of responsibility for the hotel, and honestly, that had worked out better than I'd expected, but I worried about trying the same trick with the city.

I took out the note and considered it once again.

Hmm, yeah. It's pretty clear. Any number of subjects and any supplies. So he fucks off with his harem and, I don't know, a big pile of gold, leaving me to figure out how the hell to keep the city together. Dude's built himself a pretty solid win-win. Either he does away with a potential rival and gains a palatial fortress- at least by the standards of the locals -Or he takes a shot at a New Game Plus somewhere else.

There were still some unanswered questions, and the wording was overly formal for a message from Simon, but much of that could be chalked up to my Time spell being a little fuzzy. I was looking into a probable future, not the future, after all. Or maybe it was as simple as Simon outlining the gist of the message to one of his girls, and it's them who actually picked the specific wording.

Hmm, that could work, but what would stop Simon from writing it himself?

He could just be busy, that was a possibility, and a sensible one, all things considered. But the alternative was more concerning. If he thought there was a tracking spell on the book- which there wasn't, but he didn't know that -he might leave the book at his harem while he travelled elsewhere.

Perhaps he was- or rather, would be -travelling with another group of his girls as they prepared to strike the hotel. He could send the message by radio, and someone still at his base would pen the actual letter.

The note gives no mention of an official start to hostilities, but if this were a videogame-

Maybe not the most serious frame of mind to be in, but I thought it was fair to assume he thought along similar lines.

-I'd have my troops stacked up on the border, ready to go the moment the war dec goes through.

It was actually a fair assumption even if Simon wasn't going to attend the battle personally. The clever play would be to attack before the ink on my response had dried. Not that the book actually used ink, but the idea was sound.

There were any number of reasons Simon might be away from the book, now that I thought of it. I doubted he wanted me to track even his most innocuous movements, and with easy radio and loyal followers, it would make sense for the book to remain somewhere secure within his harem-fort-thing.

I picked up my bucket and made my way back downstairs, this time stopping on my way back to the forest to speak with Valentine.

"Enjoying yourself?"

She wiped a forearm across her forehead and sighed, "I have clearly given the wrong impression about the sort of mistreatment I enjoy. This stopped being amusing after about the first minute."

"That's alright. We need to put some work into non-lethal spells anyway."

Val's eyes lit up, and she grinned, her face flushing in excitement.

"As soon as I'm done with the second floor," I finished.

Her expression fell, and her shoulders slumped, "How much have you done so far?"

I shrugged, "About a quarter."

Val dropped the piece of lumber she was holding and stomped across the splinter strewn grass to glower up at me.

"I am losing my mind here," she growled.

I allowed myself the whisper of a smirk and ruffled her hair, "It needs doing, and you're the one who should be doing it," I insisted gently, "The fact it's driving you crazy is just a nice bonus."

"It amazes me that you've somehow found a way to indulge in, of all things, deferred gratification."

"Tell you what, once I finish the second floor," I stressed, "We can have a little sparring match. I've got some ideas for non-lethal spells, and I'm sure you can come up with some," I spread my hands, "Or maybe you'll just lay there panting while I try out my spells, whatever makes you happy."

Val bit her lip, "And what if I win our little sparring match?"

I shrugged, "I don't know, whatever you want," I offered amicably.

Val reached up and grabbed the front of my shirt in both hands, and I let her pull me down to eye level with her.

She leaned forwards and whispered in my ear, as her breath tickled the hairs on the back of my neck, "I'm not just going to defeat you, I'm going to conquer you. I shall render you helpless, and once I've finished, you'll be so utterly spent that not a drop of strength will remain," she gritted her teeth, "And it will stop, not when you beg for respite, but once I've had my due for every second you've made me wait, and every time you've teased me only to deny me at the final moment."

She released my shirt, and I straightened.

I regarded her with a wry expression while she continued to make bedroom eyes at me.

I reached down and patted the top of her head, "Sure you will."

A dark cloud covered Val's face, and I heard a furious growl deep in her chest.

"Go on," I told her flippantly, "Get back to work."

I turned away before she could retort, and started back towards the gatehouse and the forest beyond. All the while smiling to myself as Val's sounds of strangled fury faded into the breeze.

I had slid the balcony door aside, and there was something in the air that reminded me of a great many summer evenings spent outside running around with my friends.

Growing up in Canada, it was common during mid-summer for the sun to still be hanging low in the sky, even as late as nine o'clock. With trees and buildings that cast long shadows, you could find yourself walking down a forest path or along a row of houses in near-darkness, only to step out into an open field or cross a street to find yourself in sunlight. It was that contrast between the two extremes that made each seem more than what they might have been on their own.

As a kid, moments like that felt as if they stretched on for half the day, though thinking back as an adult, it couldn't have been more than an hour or two.

With The Father in the sky, the effect was similar. The others continued to work out front, and a glance across the balcony revealed something close to full daylight, though with a blue cast.

But within the hotel room, it was much darker, or at least, it felt that way. The light from outside made it difficult for my eyes to adjust, and I knew that I need only shut the balcony door. I might not be able to read, but I'd certainly be able to move around without bumping into things.

Not that the balcony door was solid, it was glass, like all the others. But curtains, half-drawn, were blown about by the wind as it blew through the open door. It made the light seem to flicker and only cause further difficulty adjusting.

But then, that was rather the point.

Val and I had decided upon a format for our sparring session. If necessary, the two of us would go multiple rounds- as Val usually demanded -but I would be defending for the first, and she would be attacking.

We selected one of the hotel's unused floors as our battlefield. Amity and Constance had kept it nice and tidy, but otherwise, no one had been here except to check for luggage and other valuable bits.

So I selected one of the rooms on the side facing the sun, and with the prep time we'd agreed upon, rearranged some of the furniture so that the sofa was in the back corner by the window. The couch stuck out to cover half of it, but I had the curtains drawn to cover that portion.

With the window at my back, my eyes would adjust about as well as they could, all the while I was rendered nearly invisible by the relative darkness.

In the far left corner of the room, right across from the open balcony door, was the entrance to the hall. On my right, halfway along the wall, was the door to the adjoining room. I'd already checked the door and had found it unlocked.

There was another on the wall to my left, but it led to the en-suite rather than a separate room. I didn't have a ton of options if I needed to move quickly, but this was a hotel, and it wasn't like I had a ton of options. In fact, this was one of only two pairs of adjoining rooms on this floor, with the other set across the hall.

I'd just finished counting off my allotted head-start when I heard a dull metallic impact. Though muffled by the intervening wall and well down the hall, I recognized the sound of a fire door opening. A moment or two later, there was another, softer impact as the fire door closed.

I could tell that Val had done what she could to open the door as silently as possible, but there's only so much you can do with a heavy steel fire door.

If Val expected me to strike at that moment, I disappointed her.

I always struggled to keep my breathing under control, but it wasn't too bad sitting here on the couch, and I tried to take slow, quiet breaths. Not because I expected her to hear me breathing, but so I could better hear as she moved throughout the floor.

I thought I heard the click of a latch opening somewhere down the hall, but it was faint enough that I might have imagined the sound.

I heard it again a minute or two later, and this time I was sure it was Val checking a room. Another minute and I heard it a third time, this time closer. She was careful and methodical, but it's almost impossible to move around without making at least some noise.

The hotel carpet, so thin that it may as well have been a piece of cloth glued to the floor, did little to muffle her footfalls. At least it was better than concrete or wood, and Val's light frame did something to help.

Perhaps if there had been some background noise to cover her movements, even something as simple as people on a neighbouring floor, I might have found it challenging to pick out the noise.

Or maybe if I'd been inattentive, my mind either elsewhere, or entirely unaware of her presence, she might have been able to sneak up on me. Stealth was surprisingly easy when no one knew to be on the lookout, but against an attentive opponent, particularly in near-silence, it was almost impossible.

I began taking deeper breaths as I heard her draw nearer until finally, I heard the doorhandle settle slightly. Knowing Val was about to turn the knob, I took one final deep breath and held it, remaining as still as possible.

The handle turned, and Val stepped into the room. Illuminated by the waning sunlight, I could see her clearly as she stood in the doorway, shading her eyes with a hand and squinting into the darkness.

I had been wondering why I couldn't hear the telltale rustle of her jumpsuit. Now I knew.

The silk was so sheer I could clearly see the tattoo of my handprint through the material, though the shift was so short it only covered the first three fingers. She made no effort to constrain her hair and allowed it to stream down her back and collect on the ground around her ankles.

Though I held my breath, the pheromones hit me like a wall.

Yes, she had her arousal pheromones as intense as she could manage, but she also had her anger and fear suppression pheromones active.

I'd been holding my breath so as to make as little noise and movement as possible, but now I was especially glad for my decision. Though I tried not to let on, the truth was that aside from her anger pheromones, I found it very difficult to resist their effects. And even the anger pheromones would get to me, given a long enough exposure, or if something else was occupying my time.

The pheromones were also my first hint that Val might be serious about trying to win this thing, as it was a pretty significant departure from her usual mix of anger and arousal. Despite the fact I'd yet to breathe it in, I could already feel the effects, and it had begun to make me feel a little dopey.

She turned to scan the room, and a frown flickered across her face when her gaze fell upon the section of wall where the sofa had been.

At that moment, I struck and sent an orb of liquid steel hurtling towards her.

She noticed it as it caught the light and leapt aside, but I'd not thrown the globule of steel. I was controlling it with a spell.

The orb followed her as she dodged and struck her in the upper chest and knocked her against the wall.

She tried to pull the liquid away, but it flowed through her fingers and across her body. Some of it flowed up her neck and across her face to cover her eyes, while still more flowed into the front of her shift before splitting into two masses that poured down her arms to engulf her hands.

At a thought, the metal began to solidify, and the metal engulfing her hands drew them together behind her back.

With her hands together, I made the metal go nearly solid, giving it resistance like very hard rubber or soft plastic. After all, this was practice, and I didn't want her to hurt herself on any hard edges.

She squirmed and panted but couldn't get her hands out of the ball of steel, and neither could she shake off the metallic blindfold.

Val finally subsided with a disappointed sigh and shifted until she was resting on her knees.

"Eight feet tall, and somehow you still manage to hide in such a tiny room," she protested, "But this business with the metal," she shivered, "Mmm, do you think you can make more? It's very impressive."

"Yes, but god only knows what you'd do with it," I chuckled, still seated on the couch.

Val turned towards the sound of my voice, and I saw the darkened room reflected in the mirror polish of the blindfold.

She licked her lips, and her tongue lolled out of her mouth, "Come on now, you win, get over here so I can try again."

I rose cautiously. She wasn't hiding anything, that much was obvious, but Val might still have some tricks up her sleeve.

Not that she was wearing sleeves.

The metal was steel, meaning she currently had access to Movement and Metal mana. Now that might have been a problem, if not for two things. First of all, I'd blindfolded her, so she'd have a tough time targeting me even if she was in a position to strike out.

Second, it had taken Transform to render the steel into a liquid state, and as far as either of us knew, you could only get that from Zinc. Not something she had on her. I suspected silk contained Body mana, but then so did her actual body. Her body also happened to contain iron, which gave the same mana types as the steel. It was another reason I wasn't too concerned about handing her a big lump of metal to work with. I wasn't giving her much more to work with than she already possessed.

She shivered again as I took a step forwards. It only took a glance to see that she was either very chilly or very excited. She licked her lips again, and I decided it could very well be both.

I didn't take my eyes off her as I advanced, and that turned out to be a mistake.

I was too busy watching the show to notice what she was doing to the metal bed frame.

It wasn't until I felt the cold bronze close around my wrists that I realized my mistake. The leg of the bed swung out, knocking my legs out from underneath me as the posts held me by the wrists and pulled me down.

Val was let out a giggling cheer and threw up her hands, even as the steel began to slide off her face and run down her arms.

With her spell, she pulled my arms out wide, securing them to the bed frame just above the floor where I'd have little leverage.

"Yes," she all but snarled, "Sure you will," she mocked, "I did it," she laughed, throwing her arms up again.

She leapt into my lap, where she leaned against me heavily and draped her arms across my chest before letting out a long sigh. Her hands had begun to roam, slipping under my shirt or down to undo my belt, but that seemed more habit than anything else.

Her eyes were closed as she leaned against me, and though her victory still had her grinning, it was plain to see she was exhausted.

She yawned as the manic strength brought on by adrenaline had begun to slip away and pushed up my shirt so she could press her cheek against my bare chest.

"Mmm, as much as I would like to do this all again, I'm glad I managed it the first time. I don't think I have much fight left in me for a second try."

I lifted a hand to stroke her back, "Aww, is the princess not used to chores?"

Val slapped her hand against my chest, "I did it, damn you. The whole piano is squared away. I even sorted all the metal and picked all the splinters out of the-" she stopped, opened her eyes, and pulled back.

She stared at the hand that had been stroking her back and then at the twisted brass that had been wrapped around it until a moment ago.

She thumped me harder, "I couldn't do that, even with the tattoo, explain yourself," she demanded.

I shrugged, "With the tattoo, your muscles are operating at the peak of what's possible with a biological system. Considering how compact you are and how light your bones are, odds are you're actually stronger proportionally. But in absolute terms?" I paused to pull my other arm free, "Well, I still weigh a thousand pounds, and you're not even a tenth of that."

Val grimaced and leaned back against my chest, "I thought I had you," she said sadly.

"Don't be so hard on yourself," I insisted, "The point was to try out some new spells for when Simon's girls show up, and on that point, I'm pretty sure you came out on top. How did you manage to pull that off with the blindfold anyway? And where did you get the mana for all this?" I asked, tilting my head towards the mangled frame.

Val took my free hand, the one not busy stroking her back, and lifted it to the neck of her shift.

"I wove some metallic threads into the neck," she explained, "And there's more woven into the hem."

"Hey, that's pretty good," I told her with a grin.

"Yes, well, not enough, clearly. As for knowing where you stood, I recalled both yourself and Cassius mentioning the spell you devised to see the outline of people through intervening surfaces. If I'd been thinking, I would have asked you about it days ago, but I feel I made a reasonable facsimile with the sudden complication of the blindfold. Though I do wish I'd thought to try it before I wasted my time traipsing about searching every room."

"We can call it a draw," I offered, "Not sure I would have been able to pull free had the bed frame been steel."

Val yawned again, covering her mouth with a dainty little hand, "Somehow, I doubt our opponents will be so generous."

"Want me to take you back upstairs?"

She shook her head, "I want to stay right here. Though something does occur to me."

"Oh?"

Val pushed my shirt up the rest of the way, and at her prompting, I pulled it off, "I need to figure out a way to beat you that still lets me get you out of your clothes. I don't know what I would have done had the brass worked."

"If we are gonna stay here for now, could we maybe rest somewhere more comfortable? The bed frame isn't the most comfortable thing to lean on."

"Fine," she agreed, suddenly seized with renewed energy, "But you stay right here," she insisted.

I raised my hand in surrender and watched with interest as she went about the room, organizing it to her desires.

Which is to say, she took all the sheets and pillows off the room's two beds and all the cushions off the couch and threw them down in a pile between the bed and the sofa.

A pile she dove into, beckoning me to follow.

"Seriously?" I asked, pointing towards the bed with an open hand.

Val hit me with a new tactic, not pheromones or lewd suggestions, but puppy-dog eyes.

"Please?"

I smiled faintly, "Alright, Val."

I joined her, and she made short work of the rest of my clothing.

"Do you remember our first night here?" she asked, once I'd settled in, and she'd nestled against me, "I was still trying to give an impression of nobility at that point, but could hardly lift my hands above my head, and you helped me wash my hair. I did not feel very noble, sitting there in the bath, feeling every bit like a drowned cat. I looked like one as well, I imagine."

"That's true," I agreed, "You looked terrible."

Val slapped her palm against my chest, "You're not supposed to agree with me," she laughed, "I was still a little worried then. I'd teased, taunted, and tormented you for days by then, and I was pretty sure I could trust you, but I was still nervous, asking you into the bath like that. I was still worried you might take advantage, but you're not that man. Or at least," she added, and I could hear the smile in her voice, though I was looking up at the ceiling, "not without a significant amount of prompting."

I shook my head in exasperation, "How is it you can turn even tender moments lewd?"

"I never told you, but it was that night that things changed between us, at least for me."

I looked down at her and grinned, lifting a handful of blankets before letting them fall back into the nest, "Ah, now this all makes sense. You dragged your sheets into my room and slept on the floor beside my bed."

"I felt safe with you there beside me," she admitted, "After that, it didn't take long for me to decide that I had to have you to myself. But gods, did you ever make me wait."

"I didn't want to make you feel uncomfortable. Being this big, it's always been a little tricky to- well, to do anything normal people do."

Val raised an eyebrow, "You don't fit?"

I almost choked and had I been drinking something, I think it all would have come out of my nose.

Val began to shimmy down under the covers, "See? This is why you're lucky you've got me. No more problems fitting in."

"Hey!" I protested, just as she was about to slip under the covers.

Val gave me an incredulous look, "You have a problem with what's about to happen?"

"This was a tie. A tie."

Valentine pursed her lips, "I'll be gentle."

I inhaled sharply as Val ducked under the sheets, as the consequences for losing our next sparring match suddenly became much more daunting.