Eli POV

I woke up staring at the stone ceiling above me as the golden glow of the mana lamp in the middle played across the smooth rock. I wasn’t paying too much attention to the details though, as Salamede pressed her breasts against my left arm. She was still asleep, but our distance apart had made her exceptionally needy for my touch. Something our last few nights together had helped alleviate.

This morning, however, was not kind to idleness so I started kissing her. After a minute of oral play, I noticed her hips squirming even as she tried to make it seem like she was still asleep.

“Salamede!” I playfully scolded with a swipe on her bum, “We need to get up.”

She did a mock stretch as she kept her eyes shut and put her lips back against mine.

‘Don’t wanna,’ She said in a spirit connection as she ran her tongue along my teeth.

‘The Phoenix empire doesn’t want you getting up either. Are you siding with the enemy?’ I demanded with fake bravado.

‘Yes. Long live the empire,’ She said idly even as she opened her eyes and pulled away to get up.

I scoffed as I got up behind her and started picking up our clothes lying around. My wife took out the chest and started getting us a fresh change of clothes while I put on my white shirt and brown pants. For her part, she put on her blue dress and pulled out a new change of clothes for both of us while I looked over our armor laying in a heap on the corner opposite the stairs. Going up the stairs on the left side of the room, we walked over the smooth stone floor of dark and light reds past the table and waved the blue snake woman lounging on the purple pillows good morning, before we opened the hatch to the shower.

Once we were in the elongated tube, we stripped again, and I put our clothes in the small cubby behind us. When I took out a bar of soap, there was the blast of hot water across my back. Turning around, Salamede was already away from the wooden flower of a shower head and took the bar of soap to clean my stomach and loins. Despite our nudity, there was no heat to our interaction, just the needed maintenance of those bits that had already gotten their due the night before.

‘I’ve been worrying about Gula,’ Salamede said in a spirit connection as she moved to wash my back.

It took me a moment when she finished before I walked closer to the water and washed off the bubbles. Communication was the bedrock of marriage, and despite my loner tendencies, I would have to say something that might offend her.

‘When Gula was hurt yesterday, I felt…something.’ I said as I doused my hair before getting the water off my face.

‘Oh?’ She asked with a raised eyebrow as I took the bar of soap and started working her stomach and hips.

‘I was very concerned when I saw her bleeding in the dirt. More so than any other regular soldier.’ I said as I started working her back.

‘She didn’t seem to think so.’ Salamede said smugly.

Her self-satisfied smile told me we were safe to skip to the part where I admitted she was right.

‘Yeah, she’s interested. Frankly, I’m not totally disinterested either.’ I yielded.

‘Of course, you ultimate scion quad element-’

‘Quad ultimate scion’ I corrected.

‘My husband.’ She said haughtily before continuing. ‘What woman wouldn’t want you? When we started talking about my life up north, she was clearly making an effort to not only talk about you. Though, what about her reluctance to make our arrangement official? I know you took a big risk to make her solidify her mind.’

“Pff,” I said audibly before continuing the conversation in the spirit connection. ‘She has her obligations. Her ability to put others ahead of her romantic interests speaks well of her. In that regard, she certainly has stronger moral fiber than I do.’

I was rubbing soap on her shoulders but was interrupted as Salamede turned back to look at me. Me refusing to mate other women was creating a lot of problems for entire countries… But honestly, fuck them. Salamede told me I wasn’t to be blamed for it, but I knew better. I was putting the Coalition through hell for my comfort and because I was a right spiteful bastard. I was content to be the unreasonable one in this mess, but Salamede had made it clear I was beyond reproach.

This time she just leaned back and kissed me.

‘I love you’

I savored her taste as we finished washing and moved to get our clean clothes on. Coming back up, I was carrying the dirty clothes back into our room while Salamede got the travel meals ready. In the right corner, the pile of metal went unloved as I went to the chest under our bed and retrieved the regular leather armor we would have to use. Getting my armor on and orc mask in hand, Salamede quickly came down.

“I got the meals ready,” She said as she worked the knots on the back of her blue dress.

As a caring husband, I of course watched over her to make sure she didn’t get hurt. Taking in her movements as I leaned against the wall, I realized the timing of her preparation was off.

“That quickly? We’re going to be out there for a day and a half, even under the best of circumstances.”

“Damn. I forgot. Tel-“ She turned around, then stood still for a moment with puckered lips and put her hands on her now loose dress's hips. “What are you doing, most honored husband?”

I shrugged as I moved away from the wall.

“Just making sure the love of my life doesn’t get hurt changing,” I said innocently.

“I gave you all there was to see last night and the night before. Go get some more hard nuts and water skins ready.”

I did a little pout and floor kick but when I turned to go upstairs, I saw a smile across her face even as she rolled her eyes. Going up the stairs, I saw her mother and Lokan getting a separate breakfast ready. Nodding to the two women working the stove, I took out more skins and got more nuts to put in bags.

While I was boiling water on the magical stove, Salamede came back up with the crafts we used on the last trip. Cell came out from the wood ceiling cover and landed on my shoulder, sending me mental pictures of a dim foggy landscape that the sun was too smothered to properly light. Our meals packed in watertight leather bags, we talked with the two women after quickly stuffing some spicy sausage and gravy down for a few minutes.

Then a knock at the door sent Cell flying off my shoulder and up through the hatch in the roof while the blue snake woman in purple robes moved closer to the entrance. He rushed back and sent me images of Baloo and the two muscular frojan waiting by the door. I nodded to Lokan, who promptly pulled on the door handle.

The big green frogman came through with a rub on his blue robe as the two more muscular frojan stood watch outside.

“Ready to go?” The deep base so typical of his kind’s voice reverberated around the house.

“The heating vambraces,” I said after a moment of consideration. After Salamede came back from our room with them, we were ready to go. Putting on my mask and the leather bag with our travel meals, we were led out to the wide empty plains of the swamp. Cell’s vision remained true as the grey mist made it hard to see anything beyond the opposite embankment. Salamede came up behind me as I readied my vambraces heating function and Cell firmly attached himself to my neck.

Then one of the bigger Frojan took my arm and we were off. Doing a small dive, the world of murky water outside my magic air bubble was now almost totally dark as the near morning sun couldn’t even provide its small amount of illumination. After what felt like a few hours of shifting mud and the occasional fish, we were pulled onto an embankment. Instead of the typical grass patch, this was a wide area with bark scars and tall bushes.

Looking up, I saw Gula behind a bush on the left waving at me to come closer. Her right bang of black hair swayed with the movement and her scar over the left eye stretched with her suggestive eyebrow wiggle to the left. Salamede just came out of the water behind me and waved me on as Baloo used magic to get the water off her. Using a spell to dry myself off, I came up behind Gula and followed her finger to where she was pointing.

On a small patch of land just barely within sight was five gray tents with seven soldiers, all-around a cook fire. There was no watch being kept as far as I could tell and if the unsteady walk of some of the men was anything to go by, the bottles they were drinking from were alcohol.

“Very stupid,” I whispered as I turned back to the orc.

“Yeah,” Gula agreed as Salamede slowly came up behind me. Gula rubbed her brown leather armor before moving to the side to give Salamede a look. “I figure we should get a quick lunch before dispatching them.”

“Maybe we shouldn’t kill them,” I pondered aloud.

Gula’s horizontal cut across her nose scrunched up while Salamede raised an eyebrow. After thinking it over for a few more seconds, I explained my reasoning.

“Them going missing will be a warning to any visiting patrols, but I figured it was a risk worth taking to make sure we don’t get hit from the back. But these drunken louts are no threat to us. Let’s guzzle down an early lunch and move on to the main camp.”

The two looked at each other briefly before nodding. While one person kept watch, we ate a quick meal of nuts and water, while the frojan downed some kind of marinated fish wrapped in seaweed. After a few minutes of sitting around in the dirt eating, we all got up and moved onto the main event. Moving back into the water, it was another few hours before we got to near the main encampment. I could tell when we came near as the water suddenly became noticeably warmer.

Of course, we were in flat swampland and as such couldn’t approach the camp from any kind of advantageous position. Cell was going to have to be the main player here while we sat around in a patch of grass-covered land and went over the lay of the land to help block escape routes. After a good thirty minutes of working on some crafts, Cell came back and gave everyone his report. The main body of soldiers was on the land bridge, a sea of gray and red tents surrounded on both sides with two camps of the fire tribe warriors.

Cell made sure to emphasize that the mist in this area was more steam than fog, but after looking around, he found some of the wood boards on the embankments that were giving off the boiling heat. Most importantly, he found himself a few good ways into the camp and was confident he could move around a few of the tribes’ spears. Deciding to wait until nightfall, it was a slow day as we waited for the sun to fall completely.

As I lounged on a fallen log, I noticed Salamede talking with Gula and whatever was being said between them in a spirit connection, it must have been intense because Gula broke out in a wide grin before getting a hold of herself. The orc moved off to help keep a look out with the frogmen while Salamede came walking up to me, her snout and smooth cheekbones showing a rather self-satisfied expression.

“What’s happening?” I asked.

She put out her right hand and gave my thigh an appreciative squeeze.

“You’ll know soon enough,” was all she said before leaning against me as we continued to wait for the time to strike.

After a quick dinner, we all set out with the sky getting the subtle signs of approaching night. We couldn’t kill all of them even with the best circumstances, but we hoped we could at least force them to abandon the site's tools and tents. By making the main road impassable, that would force them to take the smaller passages out and leave behind any heavy items.

After disabling the heating boards along the main road, we waited as Cell took off towards their main camp while we hopped between the little islands to get closer while avoiding patrols. Moving around whisps of steam, the local grass seemed to be slowly burning to death and I was sure this sweltering furnace was going to be a scar on the land for months after the phoenix empire left. We eventually arrived at a good location that Cell told us about. It wasn’t going to get us in eyesight of the camp, but it was still close enough to hear those exploding spears going off.

After Cell left, we started taking turns keeping watch and trying to get some light sleep in this open-air sauna. Then the morning came. And with it, the sounds of shouting. The deep throated screams were quickly followed by the sounds of explosions and metal banging on metal. Jumping into action, I hopped my way closer to the camp while a lot of the frojan left to get the traps we laid ready. Salamede came behind me to my left and Gula to my right as we peeked out from behind an almost brown bush.

The camp was something between a small city and a large town.

Was.

A burning mess in the middle where the regular soldiers stayed made up the main body of the camp with our vision only seeing the soldiers fighting the tribesman on this side while the whisps of smoke rising in the now clearer sky told me a similar battle was taking place on the opposite side of the camp. Though there was quite a show just from this perspective. One blue tattooed tribesman took a man in red armor through the throat with a flick of his spear while off to the right three soldiers ran their swords into the back of one screaming tribeswoman. As I was watching and trying to get a good idea of who was winning, the black crystal sphere of Cell’s head peaked out of the water for a moment before he leaped up onto my shoulder.

He quickly sent me images of what happened. A few higher-ranking tribesmen on both sides of the camp found a favored spear missing and quickly sent out a search party for them. When they found them in the opposing camp, there was a meeting near the middle of the camp. A grizzled-looking general tried to work things out, but when a heated argument broke out, a spear caught the veteran leader in the head.

Cell couldn’t tell what happened afterward, but it seems the regular troops decided they wanted an immediate divorce. The alimony of which was now being negotiated in front of us. Given the size of the camp and the lack of any good vantage point, I decided to have Cell keep a lookout while we went back to prepare for the arrival of the survivors. The contest lasted almost all day due to the number of combatants and the occasional patrol coming back to bolster the main army. Some tried to get away, but we saw to them as they trickled out of the camp through the day. As the late-day sun fell in the sky, a line of the blue tattooed tribe came walking down the road.

The victors were bloody, and the aftermath of the battle was visible as the men and women had bloody scars up and down their bodies. On their backs was a bag of spoils each and three spears while they hefted one in hand. With a rustic appreciation for their sense of packing light, I nodded to Cell as the main body came down the road.

As the larger mass of the tribe came walking down into the kill zone, I prepared a big spell. It was at that point one of their members finally noticed.

“Oi! The water. It’s not bubbling.” She shouted with a whirl of her red braid. The rest quickly looked out over the water and drew their spears.

Whatever they would have done came too late as a wave of water suddenly surged out of murky depths and took out the main body with a loud whoosh as the tribe was almost entirely swallowed up. The mass of water, tan skin, and screaming landed on the other side of the road which quickly turned into a bloody mass of writhing bodies. There were some struggles and a few thrown spears, but the frojan were in their element when the killing crafts only managed to maim an enemy. One tribeswoman with a feral scowl stood out amidst the aquatic carnage and was swinging her spear in the unfamiliar mass of liquid before one light green frojan in a white shirt took her in the side with a spear and dragged her to the waiting depths.

The few stragglers on either side were too busy being cut to pieces with water blades to provide any aid.

A moment of silence hung over the empty swampland as the bodies finished floating to the top and bobbed in the water. A moment that was shattered when the frogmen came frolicking up out of the water, laughing and playing like it was a party. I was going to allow them the moment until one of the younger blue frojan started moving back up the road towards the camp.

“Woah, where are you going?” I called across.

“They must have some valuables.” He called back idly as the others perused the left-over bodies before following behind him.

“Far be it from me to deny you a payday, but me being out here is a big risk,” I said patiently to Baloo who was now perusing one dead tribesman’s spear pack.

Baloo looked conflicted for a moment before he nodded to the big pair of frojan that seemed to be our regular couriers. They took the three of us back to a hiding spot farther away from the main camp. It was a wide patch of grass and some bushes that were a proper green, as opposed to the more burned foliage we had spent the day in. The two frojan stood watch while Salamede, Gula, and I pressed down the grass to make a proper campsite and waited around for the looting to finish. As I was making a dirt mound to mold into an incline to lay on, I saw Gula and Salamede off to my left having a conversation in a spirit connection.

Content to let them discuss whatever it was that interested them, I only got to work on my earth bed for a minute longer before Salamede came back up to me.

“Eli,” She said, putting a hand on my shoulder and pointing further ahead, “There are two bushes over there, could you make this earthen bed over there.”

I noticed that the bushes provided us far more privacy away from the main camp. Getting a mischievous grin, I set to work on the new bed as orange and red started to play across the sky. After a few more minutes of checking structural strength and contours, I was happy with the semi-solid bed I made and went back to the main area to get my wife.

I saw her in them in the middle of the crushed grass as the two broad backs of the frogmen showed they were keeping an eye out.

“It’s ready,” I said with an expectant grin.

Surprisingly, both Salamede on the right and Gula on the left walked over. I raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything as they both ushered me back towards the bushes. There were a lot more questions when I noticed Gula’s face. From her sharp chin and ears to her smooth cheek bones, there was a dark green that I could only say was a blush. Her right-side bang of jet-black hair was now being nervously twirled in her fingers, bolstering this theory. After a moment they both grabbed my shoulders and forced me down onto the earthen bed before standing back up.

“E-Eli…” Gula’s golden eyes were wide like a prey animal being hunted, but her bit lip spoke of excitement. I laid there, content to let her get her mind in order before stealing a look at Salamede. In contrast to the ball of excited nerves on the left, she seemed to be thoroughly enjoying herself.

Gula bit her lips again before taking a deep breath and finally speaking out her thoughts.

“I was wondering if you would like to be with me. As a woman.”

I raised an eyebrow as I puckered my lips. Salamede wasn’t objecting and I would be lying if I said I didn’t like her. Still, who I slept with was a major political decision in this world, to say nothing of my hesitance.

“What entails, ‘as a woman’?” I asked.

She was playing a finger across her belly now as she tried to keep her thoughts ordered.

“Y-You know, kissing or cuddling. I don’t entertain thoughts of sex, but perhaps a tender hug?” She said, her eyes practically screaming for affection as her nose twitched, distorting the horizontal scar on the ridge. I turned to Salamede with an expectant look.

‘What brought this on?’ I asked in a spirit connection.

‘I didn’t cajole her to be a second wife if that’s what you’re wondering. She is a woman approaching a man, that is as far as her interests go from what I can tell. But she is a delicate thing in this dance, and it would do her well to feel the touch of a powerful man or perhaps even the spray of his seed. That would be quite an enjoyable experience for her, as I can well attest.’ She said with a smug tone.

‘Yes, right up until the moment the dwarves clobber us both. Unless you think they forgot our little discussion when we first met.’ I replied ruefully.

Salamede nodded for a moment before putting her hands to her hips.

‘Be that as it may, dear husband, it is not a discussion for now. Unless you intend to make her a mother tonight, we can wait until tomorrow to discuss this with the dwarves. Now, don’t keep the poor woman waiting. The frojan are keeping watch around the whole island so we can be as… free as we want to be.’

Well, at least I didn’t have to worry about her getting jealous.

I liked Gula but becoming involved with an orc on a personal level was something that could lead to my ruin in the Coalition, to say nothing of potential complications later on. Pondering on it for a few seconds, I decided to go with my most honest feeling: What difference does being an orc kisser or orc cuddler make when you’ve already been put through the grinder for mating orcs? With my decision made, I set up a sound deadening enchantment on a log off to my right. Quickly taking off my mask and leather armor top, I set them to the side to expose my typical white shirt. Salamede and Gula did the same, though Gula was so nervous that she struggled for a bit. Which was good as it gave me time to use a water spell to wash off the day’s most egregious sweat and dirt from me and Salamede.

When she finished, she stood there with her leather pants and white shirt. Her lack of any idea on how to proceed was obvious so I decided to lead. I grabbed her knees and pulled her to me. Her gold eyes looked excited as I pulled her legs over my thighs and brought her to lay on top of me. I started another spell to use a water ball to clean her, then I considered that this was her first kiss and I shouldn’t have any distractions.

With the orange sky behind her, I put my hand to her left cheek and used my other to pull her waist closer. She was vibrating with excitement as I brought her face down to mine. At the final moment before contact, she pushed her head forward and clumsily stuck her tongue in my mouth. While she had no idea what she was doing as her tongue flailed in my mouth, I couldn’t care less.

Orcs were delicious.

She tasted like spicy vinegar with a smoky undercurrent as opposed to Salamede’s pure sweetness. A flavor I fully intended to savor. While her golden irises were wild with excitement and lust, when I put my left hand behind her head and launched my counterattack, she closed her eyes with tears running down her smooth cheeks as her jaw shook. I was getting a bit short of breath, between the kiss and trying to keep this vibrating woman from shaking right off me, but I needed as much of that spicy zing as I could get. After what may have been a minute, we finally had to pull away.

A bit of saliva trailed between our mouths as she stayed just a few inches from my face, our lungs sucking in as much air as they could.

“Was… am I,” She struggled to say between breaths as her face kept that same dark green blush. I took a moment to lick my lips in a slow, sensual movement. That sent her smaller shakes into proper hip thrusts against my stomach.

“Delightful,” I said with a wicked grin, “If all the others here taste as good, I’m surprised the humans haven’t been attacking these swamps just to get some time alone to fully experience the delicacy.”

She started properly crying at that. I had thought she might stop to wipe her eyes, but her tongue was back on the offensive as she shot forward and the pink plunderer scoured my mouth. During our play, her body was now giving full shakes as her throat gave cries of low whining ecstasy. Even as she did so, her hands felt up my chest and arms with abandon. It was something between sensual climax and emotional release.

‘Am I beautiful?’ She asked in a spirit connection as I dueled her tongue.

‘You’re a woman. Of course you’re beautiful.’ I said without a moment of hesitation. Feeling that this was the sore subject at hand, I put a hand to her right breast. While it only just filled my hand, I gave it a light squeeze, which made her give a low cry as I forced our mouths totally closed.

‘You have wonderful breasts and a great ass. Your skin is a delightful shade that tempts men. Your -’

She stopped at that, pulling back and looking at me with a blank face as she still had the hard breathing of a fresh sprint.

“No, it isn’t. This fucking skin is the worst shade in existence.” She said audibly in a bitter tone as her lips puckered. She started scratching her arm, but I wasn’t going to let this opportunity go by. I took both her hands and pulled her closer and upwards. She gave a light squeal as I put my lips on her neck, licking her skin and the sweat from the day’s exertion.

“I love this skin… It’s like emerald stretched over the body of a beautiful woman,” I said gently between a kiss on her collar bone.

I released her arms, but she sat on my lap still as a statue for a few moments. Then when I did a light kiss on her lower neck, I felt a deep-throated sob wrack her whole body followed by the sound of raw joy and pain in a union. Her fingers suddenly grabbed my hair and when I looked up, she was wailing into my head with tears flowing freely down her cheeks. Figuring there was nothing else I could do, I continued feeling her up and licking her body. Which was when Salamede decided to participate.

“Is this what you wanted, dear?” She asked as she came down and snuggled up to my right side.

“More than,” Gula said with the distinctive drawl of a mid-cry, “More than I had dared even dream. Thank you. Thank you so much.” She stuck out a hand to my wife, who took it with a loving squeeze. I prepared some smart comments about me being involved but stopped myself. This was an almost entirely emotional release for the poor woman now, and I wanted her to get out as much as she possibly could. Content to continue my licks and kisses, eventually, Gula stopped shaking and pulled my head up for a slow kiss.

We stayed like that for a few more moments before she pulled away.

“All right, now for the main event.” Gula declared.

I was about to say something about premarital sex, but Gula got off me and clung to my left side and Salamede went down to press herself into my right. Stuck between the two women, I could only run my hands down their backs as Salamede got some bags of nuts and water skins that she had retrieved while I and Gula were dueling tongues.

That spicy taste was still heavy on my tongue as we lounged under the approaching night stars and they took turns feeding me hard traveling nuts washed down with a swig of water.

“Oh, yeah. A blanket.” Gula said as she broke the hug and got up. As she turned around and headed towards the frojan side of our little hideaway, Salamede took this time to get her kiss in. Once we finished with a loud pop, Salamede spoke to me through a spirit connection as she took in my eyes while I worked the mask on.

‘So, what did you think?’

I took a moment to order my thoughts before answering.

‘It was more emotional than sexual. To think she was aching that much over not just her lineage, but her very self as an orc. Though this may not be for the best. I’d put money on her not accepting this being a one-time thing.’

‘Is that bad? Do you want it to be a one-time thing?’

‘The problem is…’

I took a long moment as a revolting thought occurred to me.

Politics should never come before family, yet if I pushed Gula away when she might have been good for me and Salamede, I would essentially be reducing my role as a father/provider to a political office where who was loved was based on their benefits to my situation. An attitude that usually had a lot of bad, unseen effects. A fact the Coalition was learning the hard way. The implications of her being an orc, and subsequently any of our children, weren’t trivial. But this was a thorny area where I just couldn’t bring myself to let politics interfere with who I did and didn’t let into my family.

What could be held as sacred across all universes if not the importance of family, god dammit?

‘I hate this.’ I said with a mental sigh, ‘All this maneuvering, scheming, and trouble.’

We laid there as night approached, taking in the winds as it moved over the tall grass and cattails when Gula came back with a gray blanket. She still had a big smile, bigger than any I had ever seen on her face. Laying the blanket over us, the orc worked herself under it and pressed herself against my left side. Letting myself enjoy her breasts against my abs, I put my hand down her backside and looked down to rub my mask's green nose against hers.

She gave a small snort while she seemed content to rub her face against my shoulder.

“Thank you, Eli.” She purred.

“Thank you. I rather enjoyed our session, but it is time we talked about more serious affairs.”

They both looked up at me with expecting eyes.

“Once this crap plays out, I will be attending to a… medical need. After that is seen to, I and Salamede will be starting a family. A big family. What are your plans for the future Gula?”

She bit her lip and looked between me and Salamede for a moment before answering.

“I’ve always been too busy trying to stay alive to worry about such things. Are… are you extending an invitation?” She asked dubiously.

“Sort of.” I responded as I took in the stars, “I figure you will want to do something like this again, but I want to make sure we all are aware of each other’s future expectations if our little game of kisses and rubs becomes more serious.”

“What are your future expectations?” Gula asked with a look to Salamede.

The Kelton woman got a smug grin as her grey fur rustled against my side.

“Twelve children,” Salamede said in a haughty tone.

Gula gave a low whistle before looking up at me with a raised eyebrow and mischievous grin.

“Is that your expectation, or Eli’s?” She asked.

“Eli’s. When your husband is a quad ultimate-“

“Ultimate quad-“

My wife put a grey finger to my mask's lips.

“This. When your husband is this, you’ve got to make certain concessions to his demands. It will be a burden on my body, but one I would gladly pay to have the honor of being his wife.”

Salamede sounded like she would soldier on, but the wide grin on her face and haughty tone said she was all too willing to ‘concede’ to my demands. I noticed that Gulas’s left hand unconsciously went to her stomach as she bit her lip.

“What about a new wife?” The orc asked. “How much of the burden would they be asked to bear?”

Salamede puckered her lips and looked up to me with a questioning gaze, followed shortly by Gula.

Taking a deep breath, I decided that now was the time for a bold play. After all, I was the hot dish on the proverbial lineage buffet, and I should use that for all it was worth.

“We agreed to twelve children when we got married. If another woman came in, it would only be fair to expect twelve children.”

They both looked at me for a moment before I took the plunge.

“Each,” I said, tossing that one word out like it held all of my hopes and dreams.

“Each,” They both responded in unison with raised eyebrows.

They looked at me like an errant child, though I had some optimism in the faint curl of their mouths. Salamede then turned to Gula and put her right hand over my chest.

“Can you believe what a lecherous deviant the wonder of our age is? What would the girls swooning after him think? Making such a ludicrous demand of poor women everywhere.”

I puffed up my chest as I prepared my defense.

“I am the wonder of our age, beloved wife. Am I not in the position to make such a demand?”

Salamede got a little smile while Gula got a worried look and rubbed her stomach before hiding it with a mischievous grin.

“It wouldn’t be all that bad, Salamede.” Gula idly mused, “Surely, the new wife would be willing to take on any burden to get the safety and protection of Eli’s love. If you only wanted eight children, shouldn’t the newest member of the family be willing to bear Eli an extra four children to keep him happy?”

The impish voice of the orc carried a more playful tone rather than a serious or challenging one, which Salamede responded to with a raised eyebrow and sassy turn of her head.

“I would never expect anyone to take on hardship from my lacking work ethic, Gula. I can assure you; Eli will not be left wanting for child from me.”

Feeling the air of friendly competition, I stroked down both of their spines at that instant. Their intake of breath told me it was quite welcome, and they took the moment to rest their heads into my shoulders. With a bitter breeze from the night, I moved my hands and put in a heating enchantment into the log on the right. Then I covered up my skin with the blanket and bits of clothing before snuggling back into place and taking in the wonderful sensations running along my sides. Eventually, we all drifted off into the land of dreams.

“Um.”

That noise off to my left had the deep rumble of the frojan as I felt sweat running along my back from having two women molded against my skin. The sky I was looking at above me had the faint whisps of the approaching morning as I blinked away the previous night’s sleep. Looking down to my left, I saw Baloo standing there. He wasn’t utterly dumbfounded, but he clearly wasn’t expecting what he walked into.

The orc plastered to my left side gradually stirred into the land of the living. As she stretched and I saw the love for me in her gold eyes, there was a stir in my heart, which only fed the interest I had in our relationship.

“Ah, Baloo. How was the scavenging?” Gula said as she threw back the blanket and got up with a stretch. Apparently, the frojan thought he walked into the aftermath of a three-way love session because he seemed relieved when Gula showed her white shirt and leather pants were still on.

“Good, got some valuables for everyone. But there was a complication the quad mage might be interested in.” He said with a rub across his back with his idle left hand.

“What happened?” I said, now fully awake as I leaned over Salamede and retrieved the rest of my ensemble.

“We ran into another patrol.”

“Ah, I suppose there are some injuries I need to see to?” I said idly as I fixed the head cover around my mask.

“They were one of ours.” He said with a tremble coming through in the deep rumble of his voice.

That made my head snap up as I took him in and looked around.

“They aren’t here, quad mage. But we came up with the official story that we took out a camp and decided to do some reconnaissance on the main base. The lead scout… she was a right sharp one and didn’t seem to think we just strolled in after the battle. Coming up with an excuse, we said we used water magic to switch some of the spears and finished off the stragglers.”

I gave an irritated grunt as I got up, which made Gula turn around with a raised eyebrow.

“What’s the problem?” She asked as Salamede just started stirring from sleep behind me.

“Attention. Too many miracles are following you lot around and your higher-ups are going to start noticing. I was hoping we could just let this all go down as an unsolved legend, but I suppose that bit of narrative has passed us by.”

Baloo and Gula just gave a light laugh as grins spread across their faces.

“Yeah,” Gula snorted, “I’m sure high command will have an entire meeting about us.”

“Quad mage,” Baloo said in an indulgent tone, “I think the fact that the entire world is currently focused on you has skewed your thinking. No one stops to think about the likes of us.”

I looked between the two of them standing there with disbelieving expressions. The emotional scars from their time as outcasts were clouding their judgment, but we needed to leave now, and I didn’t have time to play therapist.

“Be that as it may, we can’t do any more of these wonders. Next time, we’ll just have to work around events rather than shape them.”

Baloo nodded while Gula noncommittally bit her bit lower lip suggesting she had something she wanted to say. I walked forward and pulled up my mask before planting a hard, deep kiss on her lips. I made sure to keep eye contact with her the whole time, which only made her blush a deeper green as that spicy vinegar coated my tongue before pulling back with a loud pop.

“Go,” I said before putting my mask on, “We need to get back and discuss our personal development with the dwarves to see if they won’t throw us overboard for it. Tell the messenger dwarf we need to see Gashton.”

Gula just stood there, breathlessly trying to move her mouth. I just stepped closer and gave her bum a light swat, making her stand rigid even as she seemed to enjoy the contact.

“Y-yes,” She spat out before getting her top half of leather armor from the grass and proceeded to put it on before heading to the main camp. Baloo quickly followed behind her, looking both amused and sick to his stomach.

“Well, well.” Salamede teased behind me as she got up and started putting her armor back on. “Looks like you have no objections to the relationship now.”

“She’s a good person,” I said casually as I stretched and worked my arms soreness away. “Now that I’ve slept on it, I think she would be a good match for us. Strong, ethical, and caring. She has some insecurities and some frustrating lines in her thinking, but overall, I feel she is a potential bride worth exploring.”

“Good. Good.” Salamede said idly as she got up and was ready to go.

Not wasting any more time, we all headed into the main camp. There were Frojan stretching and getting ready for a long trip as the sky showed off one of its now rare blue tints. It was pretty quick to get everyone in the water and as we traveled back home, there was only one time we had to stop. There was a whirl in the muddy water that told me something big was passing by. The frojan didn’t seem nervous, though, and just waited for it to pass. Looking at the back side of the mass of churning mud zipping by, I saw the foot of an orc sticking out in the muddy cloud of what had to be another patrol.

Fortunately, the rest of the trip passed by quickly. It was near late afternoon when we finally washed up on the embankment of Lokan’s little patch of heaven in the swamps. Waving our fellows goodbye, we took the rest of the day in slow stride. Soaking up each other’s presence, enjoying a good meal, and relaxing in the nighttime. When the next morning came and we were all showered and finishing up a breakfast of gravy and biscuits, Gula came back wearing a white shirt and brown pants that matched mine.

I was sitting at the left side of the table with my wife when the orc came and sat beside me. There was a moment of hesitance, but Salamede took my chin and forced me closer to her. A distance Gula happily crossed, though Lokan and Salamede’s Mother didn’t bat an eye as they sat across from us and were both informed ahead of time about the change in our relationship.

“S-so. Are you his brood maker yet?” The blue snake woman asked as she swatted a bug off her purple robe's shoulder. Gula pulled away with a pop and turned to her friend.

“That was something I wanted to talk about,” She said before turning back to me. “This is fun, but there are some serious conversations we need to have.”

“Oh?” I asked.

“On the way to the meeting with Gashton. I know the area well and the missive I received from my dwarf correspondent said to bring a stalk of yook root.”

I raised an eyebrow but nodded nonetheless. There was nothing in my reputation that suggested I couldn’t keep it in my pants, so I wasn’t worried about the dwarves overreacting too harshly. After that, we talked for a while about idle things in our life and laughed at an occasional joke. When mid-day came, I put back on my orc mask and headcover. Combined with my leather armor, I could walk in the swamplands with little worry.

Following Gula out the door, after she put a stalk of yellow celery in her leather bag, I came out into a bright day as the sun played across the swamplands. Though the winter cold still hung over the lands. Getting into a boat on the left side of our patch of grassland, I took an oar in the back of the boat while Gula got in front and took her oar.

We both pushed off of the shore with our oars and started rowing northward.

“What was it we needed to discuss?” I asked as the tall grass and cattails passed by when we got a good rhythm going.

“Children. More specifically, children from you.” Gula said simply.

I raised an eyebrow under my mask but rowed in silence for a few more seconds before speaking.

“They didn’t seem like a big concern last night.” I prodded.

Gula looked behind her for a moment with a roguish grin.

“Come now, Eli. Competitive spirit demands I not let another woman think she can have more kids than I can. Just like how men can’t let another man drink more than him. It was a bit of sport.”

“So, what’s the serious answer?” I asked.

She had her oar up and squeezed the grip of the long piece of wood for a moment before plunging it back into the water.

“The thought terrifies me.” She said in a calm voice, “I know this is just some kissing and rubbing, but as you said, we need to discuss what we want long term in case… in case. And to be honest, my children having your abilities is something I don’t think I want for them.”

“Oh?” I asked, genuinely curious. The sun was shining down on her bowl of black hair as she took a deep breath and placed her oar across her lap. I could tell she was looking up at the sky as she strummed her left-hand fingers across the oars handle.

“Even if they didn’t come out with your unique colorings, one of them would inevitably want to consume magical plants or animals to grow their familiars, at the very least. That would inevitably lead people to their siblings.

Say we weren’t discovered. I would still have that possibility over my head the whole time. But if I got them from a farmers boy, they wouldn’t ever have to worry about that. Not to make you regret it, but between my new status and your payment, we now have the resources that they would never want for food.

Since that comment from when we attacked the mine, where you said you would consider children from orcs to be your own, I knew you’d be a good father. But… I don’t know if I could bear to risk subjecting them to all the craziness following you around.”

I felt a tremor run through my heart, a reaction to these words so profound it felt physical.

All those women looking at me with raw lust, constantly hitting me up for a baby with their disgusting greed, and here I was talking with a woman who considered all the things that drove them to me to be repellant. It was obvious that our child would be nothing more than a winning ticket wrapped up in a baby’s body to the women in the academy and the town. An attitude Beth had shared to a lesser degree. Yet out here in the middle of the last place anyone in the Coalition would want me to be, I found myself with another decent soul, and my heart trembled with temptation.

God, this world was really messing with my mind if not treating our children like a steppingstone to sacks of gold was enough to get my interest piqued.

“I understand,” I said simply, “But let’s not get too invested in the future, even as we strive to not ignore it. Some cuddles and kisses are what’s in the offering right now and we can take a week or two to figure where we stand on things.”

She nodded as we continued paddling north, eventually reaching a wide mud hut with a window on the left side and a wooden door in the middle.

“Come, we are just a good half-hour walk away from the meeting site.” She said as we brought the boat to shore. Getting out, we headed behind the house and through the endless tracks of bushes and flowing streams. We finally got to the meeting place, some empty plains that had been forestlands. It was now filled with nothing but scars of bark in a mess of bushes. Gashton, an older dwarf with sharp cheekbones and grey hair covering the rest of his face stood in the middle of the empty patch with four other dwarves. They all wore the red and gold-trimmed armor typical of their kind. Though Gaston's emerald eyes showed a friendly demeanor, they were all well-armed with axes and cross bows.

“Ah! The troublemaker has finally arrived.” He boomed with a small grin. “How has life been for you?”

“Quite well. Better than before, even.” I said as I walked forward. “Though we aren’t here to reminisce.”

The mid-day sun was playing across his face as he nodded, but he was content to merely stand still and wait for me to explain.

“I remember what you said about me falling into the hands of the orcs during our first visit. Given that, I wanted to know what me starting a relationship with Gula would mean for our… arrangement.”

He took a deep breath and looked between me and Gula for a moment before sighing.

“We were specifically concerned about you getting gang-raped to death in an orc compound. I do hope you’ve never considered taking her to an orc market or festival.”

“Of course not,” Gula objected behind me as she walked forward and came to stand on my right.

Gashton put his hand behind his back as he looked at us both. A slight cough and he started the negotiation.

“The truth is, we were equally worried about the spread of human mages considering your extensive abilities. Young men want to spread their seed and the fact you didn’t plow into the local women shows you can control yourself, to a troublesome degree. So, I’ll ask you plainly, what is your intention for this relationship?”

I took a deep breath and delivered my offer.

“Warmth and tenderness. Though marriage and children may come down at some point.”

Gashton stood there with a measuring look in his emerald eyes for a moment before Gula stepped forward with a pout.

“Come on, dad. All the girls want him, and it wouldn’t be fair if I had to turn him down just because grandpa would get grumpy.”

That made smiles break out with everyone before I participated with my own step forward.

“I promise, I’ll have her back before sundown every night.”

A round of chuckles went up from the other dwarfs, with Gashton biting his lip before rolling his eyes.

“Damn brats.” He sighed before continuing “I don’t think the long beards would go for that. But we aren’t concerned about kisses and considering how telling you how to run your love life has gone for the Coalition, I think setting a simple ground rule, for now, is better. Every three days, Gula must eat a yook root in front of our messenger. With this simple rule, take this as far as you want until we can reach an official consensus on the matter.”

We both nodded at that, but I stood still as Gula quickly ate the yook root from her sack before she turned to go.

“Tell me, Gashton. How much longer do you think I can stay here?”

The older dwarf nodded before closing his eyes and then opening them to look directly at me.

“A week, maybe a week and a half. You leaving has made the armies marching on the Coalition change their plans and I’m sensing there are a lot of people who are happy having such a troublesome ‘pain’ get out of their hair. Even with all that, well, I’m sure you can imagine. But our diplomats are handling it as well as can be expected.”

I nodded and waved them all goodbye. We left and went back to Lokan’s house.

For the next few days, we settled into a routine that involved me waking up with Salamede and showering in the early morning when Gula would arrive, and promptly stick to my side when breakfast was ready. From there, we would either sit around talking or go on a boat ride to one interesting and of course abandoned, part of the swamp. Two days after our meeting with the dwarves, Salamede and I were cooking a beef stew in the early afternoon when she asked me a question.

‘It seems odd.’ She said to my left in a spirit connection as she stirred a pot of red soup with her green dress's sleeves pulled up. ‘Gula has made no attempt to get into our bed or shower with us. I was worried about her pushing your boundaries, but she seems content with this.’

‘Well…’ I struggled for the words as I diced a carrot, making my wife turn to me with a raised eyebrow. I decided to not complicate this by trying to dance around my feelings. ‘I don’t know if she would be pushing my boundary if she did.’

‘Oh?’ She said, her voice heavy with excitement.

I rolled my eyes as I stared into the red soup before I answered.

‘You remember that comment I told you about? About her not being sure if she wants my children?’

‘Yes,’ Salamede said eagerly.

‘It stuck with me. Some kisses and rubs aren’t going to sway me, but her concern for our potential children beyond using them as a pass into the good life has and after getting to know her better … I’m not saying I would approve of sex before marriage, but if she came up to me with the offer, I can’t say it would be a definite no.’

Salamede just got me in a big hug, drawing the eyes of her mother and Lokan at the table.

‘Good.’ Was all she said before pulling back to her stew.

After dinner, the woman in question came knocking on the door at a frantic pace. Lokan opened the door and Gula came sprinting up to the main table where the rest of us were seated.

“Letter from the dwarves. Extremely urgent.” Gula said as her white shirt rose and fell with her frantic breathing. She walked up to me and Salamede on the left side of the table, a piece of paper in hand which she quickly handed off to me. I read the letter as quickly as I could, though not quickly enough for Salamede’s taste.

“What does it say?” She asked eagerly as she rubbed my shoulder.

“Chattox,” I said, unable to keep the confusion out of my voice. “Veronica’s familiar. It’s been harassing Gigan. But whatever it’s trying to say, the dwarves can’t make much sense of it considering how frantic it is and how unfamiliar they are with mental images in spirit connections. Though the mental image of me has been consistent. They aren’t sure, but it seems to be implying it will tell people about me being a scion if I don’t see to an… arm. Whatever it means, the dwarves want me to come to the meeting place with Gashton as soon as I possibly can and head back to the academy before Chattox reveals I’m a scion.”

There were alarmed looks all around, but Cell was resting on my shoulder and radiated… confusion. A sentiment I shared as I struggled to see the problem.

“So, what exactly is the problem I’m looking at here?” I asked the group.

Gula raised an eyebrow and looked me up and down with confusion.

“Eli, if they know you’re a scion, they’d probably declare war on the dwarves for keeping you from them.”

I blinked for a moment as I processed the absurd statement.

“What… What are you talking about? They know I’m stronger than an elf, what difference does me being a scion make?”

The rest of my fellow table members looked askance at me before Salamede’s mother tapped her small brown dress and huffed.

“It just does, son. Doesn’t make sense, but things change when a scion is involved. That’s just how it is.”

The other’s nodded but Salamede seemed to be fighting the inclination.

Turning my head down to stare at the red stone of the floor, I took a moment before turning back up with a sigh.

“I suppose I have to go back then,” I announced.

Salamede immediately hugged my side, trembling and squeezing my arms for comfort. Gula was a bit more uncertain, but promptly followed Salamede when I rubbed both of their shoulders.

“Salamede…I-”

“I know,” She said, putting a finger to my lips, “I know. Just give me a moment.” We sat there for a few minutes, the two women just rubbing themselves against me before they pulled back. Salamede just looked at me as I got up and went to our room to retrieve my items and put on the orc mask with a headcover. As I came back up the steps with all of the items I had brought with me in the chest, Salamede and Gula were standing to the side while Lokan and Salamede’s mother were content to wave goodbye as the three of us left out the door.

When we were outside, my wife turned me around.

“Stay safe, my love,” Salamede said before hugging me. We shared a deep kiss and some groping before we pulled away with a pop.

“You too, my sweet” I responded after a long moment of holding each other before pulling apart. It was obvious she was being strong for me and would have her cry after I left. As frustrating as it was, it was better for me that she showed restraint. Cell was on her left shoulder, sending me a feeling of anxiety but he knew enough to not offer coming with me.

The two quickly shuffled back inside when I put my chest in the boat and Gula got in the front to start working the oars. It was a silent row back to her house, but when we beached the boat back at her place, Gula gave a light sigh. When I heard a little sob from her as we approached the right side of her house, I decided Salamede wasn’t the only one who needed some emotional comfort.

“Gula,” I said, putting my wooden chest down.

She stopped but didn’t turn around. Taking a deep breath, I came up behind her and put my hands on the shoulders of her white shirt.

“If you’re upset, Gula, don’t be afraid to show it.”

She finally turned to me. Those black eyeballs made it a bit harder to see the tears, but there was still some along her cheeks and those golden irises had the unmistakable look of pain. The afternoon sun shined down on her face even as her lower jaw shook. We just stood there as she struggled to find the words. I felt I knew enough about what she was going to say to take some initiative.

Taking her chin in my right hand, I lifted my mask and kissed her. She closed her eyes as we savored the moment before pulling away. After she licked her lips, she finally spoke.

“I suppose I should be grateful for the time we had.”

I took her left hand in mine and pushed her closer to the front wall of her house. When I got her pinned against the mud bricks, I proceeded to plunder her mouth.

‘Eli. You don’t need to keep doing this for my benefit.’ She said hesitantly in a spirit connection.

‘I’m not.’ I responded simply as my tongue pressed against hers, ‘I’m doing this because I want it.’

Her body was properly pressed against the wall now as I put a leg between her thighs and the sounds of moans and sucking filled the empty landscape. Or what was an empty landscape. I saw her mother in the corner of my eye, peering out of the doorway and looking at us with wide red eyes.

Gently pulling back, Gula looked confused for a moment before she looked to her right.

“Ah, mother. I thought you were on a patrol.” She said nervously as she straightened her white shirt and brown pants.

“It was moved to tomorrow,” Durka said, her brown braids swaying as she looked between the both of us.

Honestly, I hadn’t even considered her being home. But it wasn’t like she was unaware of what our relationship was, so I was only mildly perturbed as I pulled my mask down. Gula, on the other hand, looked like a child who was caught with their hand in a jar of sweets.

“Eli got a letter from the dwarves and has to head back up north,” Gula explained nervously.

Her mother snorted as she shook her head.

“Must be for a while if he’s giving a send-off like that. Best of luck, quad mage.” A wave of her right hand and she was gone. Gula just went dark green as she stood there for a moment. Then she swatted my thigh before starting a spirit connection.

‘Eli! Be more careful about that,’ she pouted like a teen on their first bad date.

‘Eh. She already knows, what difference does it make if we’re affectionate around her.’ I said as I turned and went to pick up my wooden chest.

When I turned around, she had her hands crossed over her chest as she tapped a foot to the ground.

‘That was more than affectionate.’ She scolded.

‘Hey, you wanted to know what it’s like being with a man.’ I teased as I walked up and rubbed my masks nose against the horizontal scar on hers. ‘Sometimes, a man lets his passions get ahead of propriety. Now come on, we have a carriage ride to get to.’

There was a slight smile on her face, but she still did her best to act irritated. A façade she quickly dropped as we left her house behind and made our way northward. After half an hour, we arrived a few yards away from the bushes as another of the tear-shaped carriages with a golem was already there with three dwarves waiting as an escort.

After putting the wooden chest in the carriage, I hugged Gula beside the open carriage door.

“I may be able to come back if I can calm Chattox down from whatever has him all riled up without anyone noticing. If I can’t… just don’t let another man taste you. I can be quite jealous about certain things.”

She snorted and swatted my shoulder before we both pulled back. With nothing left to say, I got into the carriage and waved to her as the golem stirred to life before taking off. A whirl of green and shrubbery zipped by as I took off my mask and headcover.

“I’ll sleep until we get there,” I announced to my three guards, “Go to the river upstream of the town. I want to get into my tower secretively. Tell Gigan to direct Chattox to my tower's open bedroom window. Hopefully, I can see to this problem without anyone noticing and come back.”

They all nodded as I leaned back in my seat as the carriage rocked from the golem taking off.

“Oi! We’ve arrived, quad mage.”

I jerked up and took a moment to be bitter at Salamede’s absence from my side. Then looking out the window, I saw the faint whisp of morning coming out over the night sky. Looking down, I could see some of the undead getting their heads bashed in by the dwarven guards while one of my minders stayed behind to sit across from me. From the local landscape and the river on my right, I could tell that we were a good bit upstream of the academy.

Our time together finished, I bid them all goodbye as the proper bite of winter clutched at my skin. I took my chest with me into the river. Cold and powerful, I used the supremacy of the river to guide me towards my destination. Using air and heating spells to ward off hypothermia and maintain an air bubble around my head put a considerable strain on my mental resources, but eventually, I passed under a large shadow that I knew to be the bridge.

After a few more minutes boosting myself around in the murky water, I came upon a few rocks that I knew held the hatch to my underground workshop and lifted the handle hidden among them. Some tugging and maneuvering, and I was up in the grotto section of my workshop. With the ever-present hum on the copper spheres fixed in the rack above the furnace on the opposite side of the room, I moved across the stone floor as the mana lamp on the central pillar bathed the room in its glow. Lugging my chest up the steps on the right, I worked open the hatch while only barely lifting it.

The dead silence that greeted me, paired with the still shut front door gave me the all-clear to enter the main living area. Pulling my metal armor out of the chest, I quickly put it on and opened the hatch. It doesn’t look like anything had been touched in my absence as the table to my left and the couch to my right were in the same spot as always. Walking towards the stairs on the left wall and past my kitchen near the main door, I used an air spell to deaden any noise from my metal shoes hitting the floor.

Going over the copper floor of my ‘workshop’ and up to my main bedroom, it was the same as ever. A big bed of thick red blankets and soft white sheets lay in the back middle of the room with a nightstand to its right and a glass shower in the right corner of the room. What I was here for was the glass window above the bed. After a few more minutes, the guest of honor arrived.

The white bird landed on the ledge, its cruel-looking red eyes and fluff of feathers on its head marking it different than the scavengers who it mimicked. When I opened the window, it flew in with the blue stripes on its wings giving off some water mana. It must have been as eager to conclude business as I was because it immediately bombarded me with mental images in a spirit connection before it even landed on the bed.

Veronica, Eska, Mia, Andrew, his familiar, and Jeff were all in the yard behind the water scions house, practicing their spell work and various crafts. Disturbingly, it indicated that I was a rather constant subject in their discussions. And the rest of the students as well. Chattox quickly left the mental detour before getting back on track. The familiar quickly got to why it needed me. Andrew had been working on a fire beam, similar to the one I made of water. But when he tested it while pointed to the ground, that was when a stray water ball slammed into the table that he had it resting on.

It was the thrower of the water ball who suffered when the wide beam of fire blasted Veronica’s right arm clean off. My tinkering nature couldn’t help but note some probable inefficiencies in Andrews's design before taking in the rest of the story. Fortunately, Veronica just passed straight out from the pain while the rest panicked. A healing potion was applied which stopped it from being life-threatening. Which is when Mia ran to get help.

Or rather tried to.

Chattox immediately blocked her path and impressed upon the others to stay quiet, which was followed up by Andrews fire ape blocking any attempt to leave the house that the mages were quickly shuffled into. The two familiars figured out that there was no way to fix her arm as all the healing scions were on the central continent. All of them, except for me. Working out a plan with the fire ape, they forced the students, now thoroughly confused as they were seemingly being detained by two of their own numbers familiars, to stay in Veronica’s house while they pushed the dwarves to get me. Andrew had been particularly upset about his familiars seeming betrayal, as was Veronica when she recovered from the shock.

Fortunately, she was angrier with Andrew than anything else, so she didn’t press her familiar too hard. I stared at the bird for a moment, some notion of pleading in its eyes. After I asked about the local staff, it said they were starting to get worried about all the top students seeming refusal to leave Veronica’s house. I took a deep breath and worked through the best-case scenario.

Someone was going to find out I was a scion today.

The optimal route was the only person knowing this fact being Veronica, who I heal and promptly leave to go back to Salamede and Gula. Worst case scenario, Chattox’s already fragile mental state prompts him or Andrews familiar to spill everything, which means everyone knows I’m a scion, knows what my familiar looks like, and knows how long I’ve been a scion. Resigning myself to the best of the bad options, I told Chattox about a local tavern that would have the spare room for me to discreetly meet Veronica.

He told me he would bring Andrew first if the two familiars couldn’t convince the others to stay behind and the monkey would meet back up at Veronica’s house to give them the room number.

The bird then flew out the window, leaving me to get ready for things on my end. Putting my metal armor away, I put on my regular leather armor and a cloth bandana with the headcover. Heading back out the grotto entrance, I boosted myself upriver and onto the shore by the smaller left side docks. Using a water spell to un-soak my clothes, I quickly melted into the morning crowd. Walking past leather workers, smiths, and the occasional pile of snow, I arrived at the wide three-story tavern with a wide double door for an entrance.

Going in through the door, I saw it was crowded, but not claustrophobic. The inn’s walls were dark oak while the floor was a decent grey stone. With two wide areas of tables filled with guests on the right and left, most people ignored me as the poor candlelight made it hard to see most of the patron's faces anyway. The main bar was directly ahead with a staircase to its right the former of which I quickly pushed towards as a pudgy man with a combover of black hair was washing a cup with a rag behind the long counter. I spent a few seconds maneuvering around one dock worker or Kelton merchant enjoying an early breakfast with water or ale as I approached the pudgy man. My destination looked at me with a scowl and furrowed eyebrows, but quickly became the consummate inn keeper when I put down a gold coin.

“One room,” I said in a soft tone as I kept my head down, “May have a red head or a blond coming through asking for my room. I’d greatly appreciate you sending them my way.”

“Indeed, good sir,” The man said, handing me a wooden card with the number seven on it. Going up the oak staircase, I saw numbers along the various hallways and went down the one to the immediate right. Walking over the solid oak flooring, I found my room and promptly went through the wood door with the number seven on it. It was a rather large room that had the walls and floor being the same oak as the hallway, with a bed on the right, a desk on the left with a chair, and a window in between, through which I saw the night still held some sway as the soft blue of the morning was coming in.

Drawing the cloth that acted as a curtain, I sat in the chair and waited. It took ten minutes, but eventually, my first guest arrived. Though when the wild red hair of Andrew popped through the door, I had to stop myself from groaning. I suppose after being cooped up in Veronica’s house, they weren’t all just going to let this pass them by.

“Damn it, Gretton. What is-“

He stopped as his oceanic teal eyes finally found me. Which was fair because he had been distracted by his familiar on his shoulder beneath a grey cloak, a wine-red monkey with green eyes and lines of red mana coming out of its forehead. Though, it was a fair bit taller and more muscular now compared to our first encounter.

Andrew took a moment to rub his strong cheekbones and the silky red pants and equally fine red vest over a white shirt beneath the cloak that flapped with the movement of his familiar.

Puckering his lips, he stuck out his finger in accusation.

“Who the-“

I saw the moment where he recognized my purple eyes as his jaw stopped moving and he stood still, totally dumbstruck.

“Sit,” I instructed with a pointed finger to the bed.

Andrew apparently wasn’t in the mental space to argue, because he obediently went and sat down on the pale blue blanket. I spent a few minutes going over design flaws in his craft, but he clearly wasn’t paying attention. After a few more minutes, the door opened again.

Eska, the librarian looking friend of Veronica came through the door with Mia. Her long black hair and sharp nose accentuated her glasses but her brown eyes looked to Andrew with anger.

“If this is some kind of prank, Andrew, I will put your head so far-“

She stopped when she saw me, though her caramel-skinned, muscular companion with choppy red hair kept her brown eyes on Andrew. They both had grey cloaks over what I now saw were their white and blue striped student robes.

“I would have thought you wouldn’t be wearing the student robes now that you graduated. Please, come in before you draw more attention.”

They both looked confused as they awkwardly stumbled to the right and closed the door. Mia gulped as her small chin had a bead of sweat fall along it before she spoke.

“They’re more comfortable than anything else here. Besides, we can’t leave until necrosis is over. What-“

I put up a hand for silence.

“I’ll only explain it once, so let’s wait for the star of this show to arrive,” I said in a bored tone. Inside, though, I was sweating. There was going to be too much information floating around out there about my true abilities to be comfortable, but it was still better than Chattox having an episode and blasting everything he knew everywhere.

Eventually, the last two guests arrived wearing grey cloaks and student robes underneath. Jeff came in with a tired scowl across his face, pulling the skin on his slight chin as his oceanic eyes quickly found his brother and with a wave of his short black hair, promptly stood beside him, seemingly being told beforehand about my presence.

Veronica was a wreck.

The blonde's blue eyes had dark circles and her heart-shaped face bore the hardest scowl I had ever seen on it, though the wild strands of blonde hair slightly obscured it. Her depression was such that when she registered my presence, she only managed a moment of surprise before slinking back into her despair. Not even the affectionate rub of her familiar's beak, sticking out on her shoulder beneath the cloak, seemed to penetrate those mental depths.

Jeff, however, was quick to voice his thoughts.

“What are you doing here?” He asked with uncertainty.

The three girls stood off to the right in seeming opposition to the two guys, with me being left as the mediator in the middle.

Instead of answering the question, I coughed into my hand and got to what I came here to do.

“Veronica, if you could take the bed.”

“Why?” She demanded with a hiss as her jaw shook. “So Andrew can blast off the other one?”

She pulled out her right arm from beneath the grey cloak and shook the stump at the fire scion in accusation. It was a clean stump with slightly pale skin that only reached just above the elbow. Good, the hand alone was going to be difficult enough.

Andrew just seemed to withdraw into himself, but Jeff puffed out his chest.

“He had it on the table, pointed at the ground. It wasn’t a wind blade or ball of fire that took out the table leg.”

Veronica’s bit her lower lip as fresh tears fell down her face.

“I-I’m not going to be able to go on resource expeditions. I could barely make crafts before, and now my good hand is gone.”

She started properly sobbing but her two friends came to her side.

“It’s ok,” Eska said with a hug on her right.

“Yeah. Maybe we could go to the central continent and get a healing scion to-“

Veronica forced herself to stop crying as she wiped her eyes with her left hand's robe sleeve.

“Their time is ridiculously expensive,” Veronica moaned “I’ll be set so far back even getting-“

“Veronica!” I commanded. That snapped the three women out of their stupor as all eyes turned to me. I pointed to the bed and repeated my instruction “Sit.”

They looked a bit hesitant but moved forward as the two boys vacated the bed area. With a flapping of wings and smack of a long-range jump, the familiars left their partners to sit beside me on the desk. The two groups looked confused while they continued moving around each other like they were magnetically repelled by the presence of the other. Veronica sat in the middle of the bed with Eska on the right and Mia on the left. When I took off my leather armor to strip down to the white shirt and brown pants, I moved my chair to the bed and started sucking in mana.

Eska just rolled her eyes as she saw what I was doing.

“Eli. No matter what talents you may have, only scions can restore limbs after they’re gone.”

Ignoring the comment, I made two, three-ring constructs of golden mana with the needed triangle outputs in my hands. From what I have read, bone and the surrounding flesh typically had to be healed separately and I didn’t have time to go back and forth. The three women looked on with dubious expressions as I set off what was an invisible spell construct to them. While they still had eyebrows raised in doubt, Mia’s was the first to fall before I leaned forward to get the two spells closer and kept my eyes on the reforming, pale flesh. There was the sound of footsteps behind me as I felt the presence of the boys leaning over me.

Aside from that the room was dead silent.

That utter void of noise continued for a few minutes as the arm had reformed near the wrist until the quiet was interrupted by Jeff when he finally spoke with a shaken voice.

“Eli, how are you doing this?”

I took a deep breath as I felt the first beads of sweat form on my brow. Of course, I also felt the intensity of their gazes burning into me. But aside from one snide comment, I was content to focus on the job.

“I find people so fascinating. Tell me, when you ask about something that you already know the answer to, do you think there is going to be some impossibly complicated answer that will undo what your eyes are telling you, or is it just the sheer force of habit that compels the question?”

With that, I got on to the hard work.

The joints were the hardest as I had to make sure the bone formed with the cartilage at the same time, but I was good enough that I never required a… fresh start.

I was near my limit when I healed the last digit, the thumb, but with sweat running down my forehead and back, I finally finished the arm. The muscles were noticeably weaker when looked at close up, but it didn’t resemble an emaciated woman’s arm either and shouldn’t elicit any notice from passerby.

“Exercise with it daily. A day or two in the sun and I doubt anyone could see the difference.” I said as I got up. They were all looking at me like I was a ghost come to chat but even as Andrews and Mia’s jaws moved, no sound was heard. Walking over to the desk with my footfalls being a rather conspicuous interruption to the silence, I put on my leather armor. “Practice writing as well. I’m not sure about muscle memory but-“

When I got the armor top on, Veronica slammed into me as tears flowed freely down her face. There was a string of gibberish coming out of her, but one word from Eska cut through the noise.

“Scion.”

I looked away from the crying girl to see the others staring at me. Andrew and Jeff were off to the right, while Mia and Eska just sat there still as stone on the bed. I prepared an air spell to block the noise out of this room as I started the real conversation. They were all wide-eyed and kept staring at me until Andrew looked to my left.

“Gretton. You knew. You both knew.” The fire scion said in an accusing tone as I set off the spell with a rush of air.

The fire monkey’s deep green eyes got a conflicted look before he tilted his head down. Chattox flew off the table and landed on Veronica’s shoulder. The blonde was too happy at getting back the life she lost to care about the deception, though.

“Good thing they did.” She said with a cheek rub against her now happy familiars beak. “Whatever happened before, I’m willing to move past it now. Though I am curious as to when you managed to ascend.”

They were all looking at me now, but I just huffed as I put on my cloth mask and headcover.

“Pointless speculation on something that doesn’t matter. With the closing of this incident, can I trust that you will keep silent about what you have learned today?”

“What?!” Andrew exploded. “You…you’re… No. We can’t fucking hide this!”

“Andrew!” Jeff scolded with an impatient stare and scowl. “How do you think it will look if it becomes known that your familiar was aware of Eli being a scion and told no one? Nothing good will come of us telling people about this.”

Eska nodded before throwing her thoughts in.

“That would depend on how long this… arrangement has been going on.”

They all looked at me again, as if expecting me to answer. Unfortunately, the musclehead Mia had an epiphany.

“Remember a while back, when the familiars started hanging around Eli? That must have been when he got a familiar,”

The revelation cascaded through the room like a physical wave as the timeline of events came into view. Eska bit her lip for a moment before standing up.

“No, that is far too long ago. We can’t tell anyone. Our asses would be over a pit of coals before the day was up.”

While the rest of the students were now nodding, it seemed to only goad Andrew further on as he stomped up to me and shoved a finger in my face.

“We have obligations as scions, Eli! You cannot shirk what you are.”

I put out my chin and huffed.

“I have no obligations to anyone aside from those I choose to take on. Whatever societal duties I had died when they slandered me with child molestation and orc mating.”

That seemed to deaden the room as the women bit their lips and the brothers just sighed and looked down.

“Now!” I said with a happy clap as I broke the air spell. “With us reaching a mutually beneficial arrangement, I bid you all good day.”

With that, I turned and went out the door.

Walking down the hallway and the stairs, I pushed through the crowd and out the front doors.

Right into a line of guards.

The captain of the group had a white feather on his cap to distinguish him, but I was mostly looking behind him at several blue-robed women with some other women with green, brown, and red leather armor. Association members, if my memory fighting in the forests was anything to go by.

“E-Eli. If you would head towards a predesignated area, you are being put on an official watch under orders of the Quad Mage Correctional Committee.”

I took a moment to think about blasting them all, but there were too many bystanders and, frankly, the local guard had been decent to me and mine, so I just put up my hands in surrender as I started walking to this new destination. The little parade followed me the whole way, making quite a mess as we moved through the crowded streets. People gossiped and whispered but I just casually watched everything happening around me until we came onto an empty area in the street near the border of the Kelton quarter.

Empty except for the circle of goat-headed peasants around a chair.

A petite blond with freckles and green eyes shifted her green leather armor as she took my hand and led me to the chair.

“Now, don’t go running off until we figure out where to put you.” She said with a raise of her sharp chin. The Keltons looked terrified and from the hammers and twine in some of their hands, it looks like they were pulled off the street at random to serve as meat shields against my magic. Using a heat spell to at least give them some comfort, I sat in the chair and stared at the sky as I mentally went over how they could have possibly found me.

The guards formed another circle around the Keltons with the association members, ten in total, hanging a bit further back even as this annoying fly stood directly to my left.

As I was blankly staring ahead and thinking over what to do, the buzzing started again.

“You know, it might not be proper, but I think sex would help relieve some of your stress,” The blonde said, making no attempt to hide her intentions as she moved her hands towards my crotch.

“Stop,” I idly commanded as I swatted her arm away. That got a light chuckle from the other mage woman, which only encouraged her as she got a grin.

“Now, now, it’s rude to deny a woman. Besides, you shouldn’t have-“

I swept her legs with my left leg and grabbed the back of her head with my left hand as she fell. When her face hit the stone pavement, there was a crunch as the woman’s nose broke, though her lack of movement after I lifted my hand said she wasn’t feeling any pain. That caused a lot of the guards, some of whom I noted was now the full-plated steel men like those I had killed n the south, to pull back while the mage women just looked furious.

“Silence,” I proclaimed, and so it was.

After a few minutes, Tansen came down the road in the white robes with gold leaf embroidery as his black hair fluttered in the wind. Just behind him was Harold, the muscular man with a strong jaw and short brown hair, though his deep green eyes held great malice for me.

“What is going on?!” Tansen yelled to the guards and association members.

“Detention,” Harold said, furrowing his bushy brown eyebrows at the woman lying face down to my left.

“Oh, shut it, Harold,” Tansen spat, “He has done nothing to be legally detained. And I’m sure these poor Keltons haven’t either.”

“It was the only way to know he wasn’t going to blast us,” Harold growled back, thumbing his black vest and white undershirt.

A cough from me stopped the bickering.

“I would like to leave if it would please you all so much,” I said respectfully.

Harold got a red face but Tansen stood still before stroking his goatee. After a minute, the academy head nodded.

“You can later today. There is a certain matter you will need to be in my office for just before dinner, which I would greatly appreciate you being there for.” He said with a strained smile.

“And stay at the dorms.” Harold put in, with the surrounding women’s smiles making the source of the request clear, “We aren’t done with this,”.

I strummed my fingers on the chair as I contemplated what a mess I was in. Without knowing how they knew about my presence; I couldn’t very well leave lest they follow me back to the swamps. Sighing as I put a hand to my head, I nodded.

“Fine, but I’m staying in the dwarf stalls.”

The women started scowling but Tansen only nodded before turning to Harold.

“Clean this mess up. And don’t try this crap with the Keltons again.”

Getting off the chair as the rest of the captives quickly shuffled away, I headed towards the dwarf section of the main market. It wasn’t quite as easy as it usually was considering the entourage of association members who still insisted on following me and had no problems shoving any peasant who slowed them down. As the morning sun shined down over the town, I arrived at my typical stall.

This time, however, I was provided a table in the back. My minders didn’t like that but when they were denied entry, they fanned out to make sure I didn’t leave through a back entrance of the big red tent. There was a fully working kitchen on my right as I sat in a small corner several feet from the entrance with an oak chair and table, taking in the sights and smells of the cooks and their craft as I pondered my situation in the private little corner of the world I found myself in. While I strummed my fingers on the table, my typical meal of steak and beer came. When I took the plate from the dwarf server, my stomach dropped when I felt the tell-tale texture of a letter underneath.

If Gula had anything pleasant to say, I was sure she would have wanted to say it to my face. The fact she also had to send it so soon after I left also irritated my fears, and when I went over the letter, my fears were confirmed.

‘Eli.

The Phoenix Empire has taken the southern route, but apparently, high command wasn’t as prepared as they said they were. A small town was overrun and enslaved. I’m going to get Cell and free them.

Love, Gula’

I felt a headache coming on as I put the letter down. After flagging down a server for a paper and one of those fine dwarven pens, I quickly wrote out my letter as he waited patiently in attendance on my right.

‘Dear Gula.

I am sorry for those slaves and perhaps you could help some of those fleeing with food and clothing. But we have drawn too much attention to ourselves as is. I know this is a hard thing for me to ask of you, but ask it I must, for both our sakes.

Love, Eli.’

I handed off the letter to the server, who did a light bow and took off. The rest of the afternoon passed by with me sitting in the chair and working on some small wooden cards. I didn’t know what would happen, but I wanted to have a few dirty crafts on hand as a backup. A few hours after lunch, a guard from Tansen arrived to bring me up to his office. A meeting I quickly left the tent to attend as I waved goodbye to the dwarves.

Out in the cold embrace of the elements again, the air was filled with a cacophony of haggling as we pushed through the busy streets. Eventually, we came up to the sheer white walls of the academy and through the main entrance. Going up the main tower and catching every side glance and lustful gaze along the way, I arrived in Tansen’s main office. The wood floor and windowless walls of striped white and blue were illuminated by a mana lamp in the middle of the ceiling. The main difference from before was the line of people both in front of and by Tansen’s desk. The former of which was comprised of my new co-conspirators.

Agatha was on the far left while Aki was at his usual place, the right of his charge who was sitting in the leather seat of the desk in them idle of the room. The newcomer was a pudgier man in brown pants, bald with a double chin and big nose, though his green eyes spoke of a predator. Rubbing his hand on his green vest and white undershirt, he stood between Agatha and Tansen and nearly hit the Front woman with a grand sweep of his hand.

“Ah, at last. The quad caster comes to visit those who are overseeing his welfare.”

To Tansen’s credit, the dramatic roll of his eyes said this decadent display was not previously agreed upon. Agatha just adjusted her blonde hair past her sharp cheekbones and straightened her black work dress before cutting off any more ceremony with a cough.

“Yes, you have been quite missed,” She said in a stern tone as she beckoned me forward. In order from left to right, it was Jeff, Andrew, Mia, Eska, and Veronica and the available space saw me put between the two redheads. “But we have some questions.”

I felt some sweat trickle down my spine as I quickly tried to make up a story in the seconds I had left.

“Are you a scion?” The blonde asked with a casual smirk like she was asking a trick question to a naieve child.

I took a moment to get my thoughts in order and was about to throw out a probing question when Mia went off.

“Fucking shit, Andrew! Could you not keep your fucking mouth shut for one damn day?!” She growled as her two companions also turned on the fire scion with furrowed eyebrows and pursed lips. Even Chattox on Veronica’s right shoulder puffed out its chest in indignation.

“I didn’t say anything!” Andrew spat back with a matching snarl, a face matching Gretton’s expression as the monkey sat on its companion's left shoulder.

Interjecting myself between the two groups, I just stood there staring at the three women before turning to Andrew, treating both parties to the coldest death glare I could manage with my cloth mask on. The realization of what they just did washed over them, but it was far, far too late in coming. The opposing side was stunned, sitting or standing, with open jaws and wide eyes. Agatha was the worst off, having the smirk blasted off her face and now had a coloring of red in her cheeks take hold. A feature that quickly spread to the rest of her face.

I took this opportunity to tell my companions variations of ‘not a word’ and ‘say nothing’ in spirit connections.

Tansen and Aki looked to be only shocked as they processed what they had heard, but Agatha and the man with delusions of grandeur only got redder and redder as their jaws tried to find what it was they wanted to say with their eyes looking between all of us. Tansen moved his hand to press something on his desk which sent off a wave of air. From my own spell usage, I guessed it was a sound-dampening craft. It took only a few more seconds after that for Agatha to properly explode.

“Eli! You… What’s going on?!” She yelled, surprisingly turning to Veronica. The mother approached her daughter with a stuck-out jaw as she stomped up to her. Hands on her hips, Agatha stood in front of Veronica with a tap of her right foot, even as her daughter couldn’t look her in the eyes. Staring down, the younger woman just bit her lip and stared at the floor.

“Veronica! I asked you a question,”

Agatha took her right hand to pull her closer, but the look of shock said she felt what was wrong. Pulling the pale, weaker arm up for everyone to see, it took a second of Agatha looking at it in confusion before Aki spoke with a rustle of his grey beard and mustache.

“Healing. When a limb is lost and restored with healing, it looks like that. Though… only scions can perform such feats,” Aki said, his wide brown eyes shifting to me. Something that was quickly followed by everyone else. Agatha’s blue eyes only stayed on me for a second before they shifted back to her daughter.

“What is going on, Veronica?” Agatha said in a firm, now calmer voice even as she puckered her lips.

Her daughter looked up to meet her eyes for a moment before the water scions nerve failed and she went back to staring at the floor.

“I cannot say,” Was all Veronica could bring herself to give up, in a tone just above a whisper.

Agatha took in a deep breath and looked down the line, skipping me as she did so. When she got to the end, the pudgy man spoke up again.

“What a fortuitous turn of events. With this, we can pursue certain legal avenues to expedite the spread of his seed. Though, that shouldn’t have been an issue in this first place.” The raise of his right eyebrow and puckered lips made it look like he was speaking to an errant child. Taking in a deep breath, I simply huffed before folding my arms together.

“If it wasn’t Andrew, then how did you find out? I can imagine how you could have pieced it together if you knew about the arm, but that wasn’t what got you on my trail.”

Tansen bit his lip while Agatha, worryingly, went deathly pale. It was the blowhard, so determined to control the conversation, who again spoke.

“It was due to a certain… accusation. But it can easily be explained.”

His three compatriots looked a bit dubious at that, something that did nothing to deter him from plowing further ahead.

“However, with this most joyous of occasions, your familiar can be presented at the academy tomorrow evening for the official documentation.”

“Oh?” I asked with a raised eyebrow, “What makes you think I’ll let you see it?”

His jaws wiggled as he sputtered from indignation. This time, however, Tansen finally threw himself into the conversation.

“Eli. I understand how you feel, but you have another life that you are connected to on a level most people could never comprehend. You need to at least allow them to socialize with the… the other…” Tansen’s line of thought came to a screeching halt as he stared between the two familiars in the room. Leaning back in his chair, he put a hand to his mouth before he leaned forward again and rested his elbows on the desk.

“You’ve been a scion for a while, haven’t you?” Tansen asked with a playful smile like he was a school kid with a hot secret to tell.

“What?” Agatha demanded, turning around to look at Tansen with furrowed blonde eyebrows. Tansen just snickered before he casually strummed his fingers on the desk.

“Of course, I went over everything I could find about Eli to the finest detail. One interesting tidbit was the amount of interest the other familiars showed in him before that disaster of a censure order was handed down. They must have been attracted to the newest addition to their ranks. Well, I must congratulate you on hiding it for this long,” Tansen said with a small smile, looking quite impressed.

Agatha now turned her attention properly on me, as did Aki and the fat newcomer.

“Well?” Agatha demanded as her eyes took me in like a hawk would regard a mouse.

I stood totally still as the pall of nothingness strangled the room. The damage had been done and there was no maneuvering the ship off the rocks now.

After a solid minute of silence, the blowhard huffed.

“No matter. We will need a full inquiry into this matter by the committee. It goes without saying, you are all under a gag order. Eli will be moved to the dorms, of course,”

His show of confident bravado was undercut by the beads of sweat falling down his forehead. As he took a moment to take a handkerchief from his green vest pocket and wipe his brow, he took a deep breath before resuming his little speech.

“I’m sure there is some kitchen wench or local noblewoman who can sate you in the meantime to spread your magical power. Until-“

I shook my head.

“I don’t care about power, especially magical power.” My voice was as tired as I felt whenever this subject came up “I want people who love me, I want to work, and I want to start a family with those that love and appreciate me the person, not me, the ball of magical potential that they can use to get ahead. This swarm of sycophant women following me everywhere like a pack of starving dogs disgusts me and I want as much to do with them as the pig wants to do with the butcher's knife. If that is all, I will be heading back home.”

“Are you joking?” He sputtered with a slew of spit coming out.

A cold stare from me stopped him dead in his tracks.

Tansen, looking like he was thoroughly enjoying this whole affair, just put up his hands in mock surrender. That drew positively murderous glares from Agatha and the pudgy man.

“Hey,” Tansen said defensively, “This isn’t my show anymore. He’s not my student and, if I may say so, you have no authority to detain him. As far as I’m concerned, we brought him here to ask a question and we have an answer, filled with holes and rotting at the edges, but an answer just the same.

Though I will offer some advice,”

He raised his chin to me at the last word, which I nodded back for him to continue.

“Being a scion changes things, Eli. They will come down far more harshly than they have been, with whatever thin veneer of civil reasoning they were feigning stripped away. Just a bit of warning between two scions.

You’re all free to go.”

Tansen gave us all a little wave before he started taking reports out of his desk while the pudgy man and Agatha moved closer to him.

“Now listen here, Tansen.”

“Of all my years in congress, I never-“

I didn’t stay to hear what else they were going to say as I immediately turned around and ran out the door at a sprint until I got to the window and jumped out. Using an air spell to roughly glide down, I hit the ground just before the wall entrance and made a mad dash towards my tower. The association members still stalked after me but without any official orders, they kept their distance and watched. Dashing over my stone lawn and through the front door, I closed it with a slab of stone after locking it to make sure it couldn’t be forced open.

For the next four days, I did nothing but complete the airship through long days and lonely nights as I waited for what was going to happen next and thought having another escape route for the worst-case scenario was a good idea. The task, after the third test in cold air, was finally completed when the wide balloon came near the ceiling and did a midair turn around to come back around and using the momentum to land near where it took off.

Getting down, I took in the object of so much of my labor. A long, single piece of wood a bit bigger than the boats delivering goods on the river, the balloon was more than twice the size of its cargo. Along both sides were two long tubes with air enchantments to push the whole vessel forward. As I was preparing the ceiling to pull back to allow the airship to get into the air, a knock from my front door interrupted me.

With my typical white shirt, brown pants, and smiling metal mask, I came up the hatch and opened the front door to see a rather pale Gigan and three guards. His face, from his pudgy cheeks to his emerald eyes, had the look of a man who just saw his death as even the assortment of gold bands in his copper beard and lamb chops couldn’t provide any radiance, not that the grey cast sky had much to give. As I moved to let him in, I noticed he was idly thumbing his rich, red vest replete with gold buttons. A bad sign of things to come if someone of his caliber was feeling the heat.

Moving to the right side of the kitchen table, the dwarf diplomat sat idly as I plopped in the chair opposite of him.

Taking a deep breath, he put his hands on the table and took out a letter which he read over.

“We know of your involvement with the pandego’s. Get us a meeting with them where Gula first met them, or the use of the craft you used to make them. Failure to comply will see the ones you were trying to protect killed.”

He handed it off to me and he continued talking as I read the lines over and over.

“It was in the stump where Gula puts her letters. We checked the two houses where they were staying, both ransacked and turned upside down with no one inside. Where did you first meet Gula as a pandego?”

“The remains of the crypt base,” I said idly. A wave of ice had taken over my body and mind as I coldly took in all the facts, scarce as they were. “I guess we don’t need to ask who is behind this,”

Gigan just shook his head as he bit his lip.

“Sorry, Eli. We’ve been playing it close being this involved. But slugging it out with the orcs and frojan is not what we signed up for. Sad to say, they were far more expendable than you and the higher-ups are debating right now, with the money on them cutting our losses.”

Ah, yes. This was a nice little conclusion to things on their end. All the troublesome questions about Gula and Salamede, the potential for loose ends, were now dealt with. And it was in such a way that I could never blame them. There was no telling if this a small band or the official government of the swamplands, and I couldn’t expect them to march armies and wage wars based on my goodwill. I nodded and got up from the table.

“Well, Gigan, I understand your position. But I hope you understand that I need to be alone for now.”

The dwarf nodded and left as quickly as he had come.

I sat there for a moment before rushing downstairs and getting into the wide expanse of the workshop. Seconds could decide if Salamede and Gula live and I had no time to work on an elaborate entry and exit system for the airship. Donning my metal armor with motorized wheels and the metal war hammer from the chest near the pile of rejected planks of wood, I headed upstairs and peeked out my front door.

Ever present, the association members and soldiers were keeping an eye on my house at a good distance, but none of them were anywhere close enough to fall into the workshop. Sprinting downstairs and sealing the hatch behind me, I made sure to mold the surrounding stone to cover the grotto entrance before going past my ever-humming forge and into the vast emptiness of my main workshop with its corners being black as mana lamps dotted around the room lit up as much as they could. Turning to cover the door behind me as well, I then sprinted up to the airship.

It was a struggle to get up the ladder on the left side in the armor, but my mind was going fast enough to make a trip around the solar system in under a minute and I didn’t even properly register when my metal foot went up and straight through one of the steps with a loud crack. Finally, on the flat deck of the ship, I released two different spells. One pulled down the thin ceiling into two different pieces that crashed on opposite sides of the airship with a sound the resembled a mountain tripping. The other flooded the surrounding air with mist, which quickly flew out of the hole in the ceiling. Taking the steering wheel and levers, I silently rose into the air as this work of love took its maiden voyage.

I could faintly hear screaming from above, but I redoubled my mist spell and used another spell to make it wrap around my lawn in a sphere. It was dirty and sloppy, but I didn’t have time to do anything else. Coming out into the cold grey sky, fog covered everything, including the tower. Pushing the ascent lever as hard as it would go, I formed the fog around the ship and several other empty spheres of roughly the same size. This much spell work was tough, but the light nature of the material made it less arduous than it looked. Having the spheres lift in odd patterns and directions with the ship, I peeked through the fog until the town looked more like a toy version of itself before I stopped the spells and just focused on making clouds along the flat bottom of the ship.

Releasing the fog spell, the balls dissipated and below me was a wide patch of grey cloud covering the bottom. The vast landscape opened up around me as I took in the empty green plains with the river snaking through it and the dull sky above. Feeling like I was the loneliest man in the world, I pulled up a lever on my left. The ship heaved with a slight groan as the thrusters on the side went on full blast and I sped southward towards destiny.