Chapter 38 Friendship.

We sat at the table it is a little after 11 am, Bre'Tirgan and his people left, leaving myself, Cindy Julie, Rick and lastly Ki'Diera and her two servants looking at one another in silence.

"So how old are you Ki'Diera?", Julie asks with a pleasant smile.

"You familiar tone is not acceptable and insulting, you may address me as your Highness or Princess as befits my status.” Ki'diera says looking at Julie with disdain, with an air of high nobility about her.

Ooooh I am really not going to like her

what got stuck up her ass?

Sigh, leave it be you two we can work around this....

“umm Princess Ki'Diera, here we do not stand on formality or status, we are all equals here,

I hope you can understand and accept our ways,” I say to her cautiously, trying to be diplomatic

“hmph if you insist, then Ki'Diera is fine for now. As to your question I am old enough to mate, I have killed many Were-beast and I am sure my standing will be much higher once I am wife to his Lord Scott Smith.” she says with a tone of superiority.

Ooooh I am REALLY REALLY not going to like her....Scott? Get rid of her before I do something bad..

hahaha She is an intersting one, she is still very young tho, spoiled rotten it seems. We can break her of that Julie, just you watch, I have so many ideas hahahaha

Hey you two, really now, think of it from her side, I am not going to try to defend her here, but I see her side of things too, she was just thrown to the wolves by her dad, she must be scared and this is some kind of defense mechanism to cope.

I think that to my two wives yet I look at Ki'Diera and in her eyes I see a hint of fear and uncertainty.

I think she is trying to cope as best as she can and this is the only way she knows how, lets give her time to adapt and get along ok? I am not saying to let her walk over you or take her bull. But try to understand and help her ok?

Yeah .........you are right Sweetheart, I will try, but I still do not like her, she rubs me the wrong way.

Oh I will help her alright hahahaHAHAH

Cindy?!!

Yes Tiger I will help her adapt....................

“Lord Scott Smith is something the Matter?”, Ki'Diera aska with a nervous tone now, looking at the three of us staring back and forth at each other, it must have looked weird to her as when I answer one of my wives I would turn to them and look silently at them.

“Oh no, my wives and I are having a private discussion, sorry about that it was rude of us Ki'Diera, and please call me Scott form now on, this is Julie and this is Cindy, I must insist on no social rankings please.”, I say pointing to each in kind.

“Vey well lord.....I mean Scott, it will be as you wish.” She says her tone uncertain. She then turns to one of her servants,”More milk.” she simply says, and the servant scurries off to get some.

“I have to ask Ki'Diera, but how do you feel about all this, what your father and I agreed to, you and me being married and all” I ask curiously.

She gathers herself her posture straightens and pride shows in her face as she speaks,“my father has entrusted me, with an important mission of my people, there is nothing to think about here, I will fulfill my duties are expected of a Princess of the Ny'Har'en tribe!”

"I see , but do you...." I start to ask.

“How can you say that? To be forced into marriage with someone you do not even know or love?” Julie jumps in.

“Julie is it? Well in our tribe it is common, we marry for the best results of family or people. Our females seek out strong and or successful males and mate. Once the mating ritual has taken place they are together for life. We grow to love one another over time, the bond becomes unbreakable. If a mate dies, we do not go to seek another, we simply exist and mourn their loss for the remainder of our time.”

Both Julie and Cindy are stunned by this revelation. I too, am speechless, mate for life, one partner only.

“then how can you agree? Scott already has the two of us as wives?” Cindy asks now.

“It is not uncommon for a strong succesful male to have more than one mate.This gives more chance of strong offspring to further strenghten the tribe as a whole. As is the case of lo..Scott here, as he already has you two, is that not why you have chosen him?” She asks bluntly

“No, I love Scott, our marriage was forged in love” Julie says angrily.

“Love? Why were you attracted to him in the first place? Did you simply see him and decide then that you would marry him?” She says with a slight knowing smile now.

Hmmmm something is strange, she always begins to smile when the conversation begins to go her way like she is manipulating it, knowing how it will turn out..

Are you thinking she has some kind of foresight?

If I had to guess, from what I have observed already, I would guess yes.

“You can read people, can you not, Ki'Diera?” I ask her suddenly.

“Yes, it is one of my gifts, I can tell if someone has malice or good intentions, I can also see the aura of a person when they try to deceive or as in Julie's case, lie to themselves.” Ki'Diera says with a smile, her confidence is awakend now.

“I really do love Scott, I am not lieing, I love him with all my heart, honest!!”, Julie now says defending herself.

“I never said you did not love him, I said you chose him based on his strength and succes” she sighs, then continues “it is only natural to be drawn to strength and feel love for it, it is why my people look for that first in their mates, then let love happen later.”

Julie sits back confused and not knowing how to answer, I really love Scott, I really do it is not a lie..

We know you do, Julie dear sister, but what she is saying makes sense....why were you drawn to Scott when you saw him the first time? Think about it, if he had been a fat, nose picking pervert would you have loved him then?

Um we are getting off subject and I have no doubt you both love me, you hav proven and shown that to me, and I love you both dearly so lets drop this please.

“Talking in your head again it seems? Very convenient skill you have there. Will I gain this skill once I become your wife?” Ki'Diera asks curiously.

“I do not know, to be honest, I am not even sure how it worked out in the first place and if it can even be repeated,” I say truthfully.

“I see, that would be a shame if I were not to obtain that skill as well, my standing among the wives would suffer and I cannot allow that to happen” she says with defiance.

“I think love has to be a part of it for it to work, so were the words spoken in the ritual”,. Cindy speaks up.

“I will find another way then, I can not allow myself to love until after the mating ritual is performed and that can not happen till after the wedding.” Ki'Diera says looking somewhat displeased now.

Oh thank god, no sex until after wedding, good policy! Good girl!

Ha we can make her envious of us hahaha rub it in her face hahahaHAHAH

Cindy! Behave!

Yes Tiger........fufufufufu

“Well then may I retreat to our chambers? I wish to freshen up a little and rest.” Ki'Diera then says her nobility air coming out again.

“Our chambers? I thought you had to wait till after the wedding... “ Julie starts to say.

“We can not mate till after the wedding, but this week is to get to know one another and thus I wil be sleeping in the same bed as Scott here” she says again her tone defiant.

“Can't we just get you a room and in the day meet up and get to know each other then?” I ask now slightly paniced.

“No, that will not do, we must prepare our selves, body and soul for the wedding, as it will be for life, once we mate. I must become familiar with your scent, you breathing habits and your body, before such time.” Ki'Diera says with a sly smile.

“What do you mean by body?” Julie jumps in again.

“Tho we may not mate it does not mean we can not touch, AND, there will be a lot of touching, to get to know each other. It is standard practice among my people.” Ki'Diera says as if it were normal.

Scott? Julie says in my head questioning me.

Let her come Julie, she said she can not mate right? so..........

but she will be watching, I am not sure I am comfortable with that......

What about me, I watch you all the time

You are different, it is different...I uh, oh god this is all going so fast. FINE! Let her sleep with us!

Umm do I get a say in this at all my loves?

No! NO!

Um ok....sigh

“Follow me Ki'Diera I will show you the way”, Cindy says then winks at me, Julie follows and the three ecorted by two servants leave.

“I have to hand it to you Scott, you make such great sacrifices for the good of everyone, hahahaha.” Rick laughs finally speaking after watching everything in silence.

“This is not funny Rick,” I give him a hurt look

“Well think of it this way, your reputation as a horn-dog will only be strengthend hehehe.” Rick jokes.

“Ok now that you had your laugh can we get serious here?” I ask pleadingly

“Of course of course, I could not help it, really now, put yourself in my shoes Scott, seeing a person like you, hehe, in any case what is on your mind?” Rick asks of me.

“Well for starters the NyHar'en and the joining of forces?” I ask of him.

“A little late to be asking me is it not? You already made the decision.” Rick says.

“Nothing is in writing and we have a week to change our minds, For now I want to get to know them and see if they will indeed be trustworthy allies. I want to keep eveyone vigilant. If they as so much as sneeze wrong, I will not hesitate to kick them out.” I say to Rick in a serious tone. “For now we come first, they second, and I am sure they realize that, probably why they insisted on this marriage thing and a blood bond contract. Over the next week I simply want to test the waters and see how it plays out and I need your thoughts to help in that decision”.

“I see and that is a good plan, but how do you plan to remove them once they are inside.” Rick asks.

“I can fire the guards as Baron, so that that will not be an issue, plus I will ensure that they cover the outside while our current guards are inside. Keeping them separated for now, with maybe a few of our current Elite in charge of their squads.. And I beleive they have to swear fealty to me and me alone before they can even become personal guards, so there is that too.” I say to him.

“Ok then, we will keep an eye out, I will inform the depu...err the Elite Guards of this as well and get their input” Rick says, just about then, the lights flicker then go off.

“huh? Did we run out of fuel?” Rick asks looking up a the lights.

"No, we should still have 2 days worth at least, plus I was going to start having the Elite go and siphon the vehicles on the road to get that fuel as well. Lets go check it out, if it broke down we will need to replace it quickly.” I say to him heading out towards the basement.

As we reach the door to the basement a few people asked what was going on and began to follow us, but we asked them to let us check it out and we will keep them updated, they agreed and left. Then the lights came back on brighter than before ,almost blinding, a few exploded.

“What is going on? Lets hurry!” I say and move faster.

Rick and I arrive, we see 3 of the workers surrounding the area where the generator used to be, but in it's space was a large blue type crystal on a pedestal, cords and pipes attached to the base leading to the main breaker, a blue glow flowed from the pedestal thru the cord and pipes and the break was glowing too.

The three had their eyes closed in concentration and a white glow emanated from each of their hands, which they had outstretched facing the Crystal which stood about 3 feet tall and 2 feet wide, almost egg like. The Crystal pulsed every other second.

“Huh? what is this? What are you guys doing?”, I ask of the three workers, but they ignore me as they always do and keep on concentrating.

The Captain of the Guard Winford arrives,” My lord, is all well?”

“I do not know Captain Winford, we are not sure what they are doing”, I say to him eyeing the three workers in suspicion.

“Ah they are adding a mana crystal to your keep” Captain Winford says “It will have many functions but foremost it will keep the lights of your keep going and they are adjusting the mana output as we speak.”

At that moment all three open their eyes look at one another and then walk by us to go to their next task silently.

“Why will they not talk to us?” I ask confused

“They simply can't My Lord, they have no tongues” Captain Winford states sadly.

“What? No tongues? How did that happen?”, I ask now in disbelief at the thought of 150 workers with no tongues.

“I do not know my Lord”, Captain Winford says apologetically.

“You know I have been meaning to ask, How you came here and what is your background, I mean we saw you appear and assumed you simply showed up to serve us as NPC's, but now I wonder and how do you know about the workers? And all this?”, I ask now very curious about his answer.

“I heard your explanation to King Bre'Tirgan and I can assure you were are not NPC's as you may think, My Lord”, Captain Winford begins to explain,” We are as real as you and have feeling much like you and can die like you, My Lord”.

He sighs then continues, “ much like your peole we once thrived on our world. Then the apocolypse happened similair to yours, and we fought bravely to the end, only to be overwhelmed. We gathered many survivors, almost a million at one point and fought against the horde of monsters that came and held for almost a year, then the bosses showed up and turned the tide against us. As we were being defeated and wiped out a screen appeared and offered us a deal.”

“The deal was a select few would become whatever was needed of us and be transported to other worlds to serve as guards or soldiers. We were a proud warrior race second to none. In return our people would live in peace again with the sacrifice of a few. Over time our peole began to recover and the monster attacks stopped but remained to be a reminder.”

“We trained against them even to imporve our fighting prowess and even developed this aura to repel monsters. I know in my heart my people live in peace, my parents and siblings know peace, while I serve. Once my time is done I can return and have a peaceful life if I so choose.”

“And how long do you have to serve?” I ask now stunned at this new news.

“The standard agreement is 5 years, but some extend it so others do not have to take their place. This is in fact my 4th extension, I have served several lords and kings before you and have come accross the worker race before, they are a mysterious builder race but no one knows more about them.”

“We are not allowed to volunarily give this information as it is irrelevant we were told, but we are not forbiden to talk about it if asked directly, My lord.” He says now with a solemn face.

“I see, so your people too have faced this as well......” I say as the information sinks in. A proud warrior race defeated, to be turned into slaves more or less. Will this happen to us as well?

Will what happen Scott?

Sweetheart is everything alright?

Nothing my loves, it is nothing just having a hypothetical conversation with the captain of the guard is all, I lie to them. I feel sick to my stomache for doing so, as I never lie, but this time I had to. I must lie. I do not think this openly, but make a conscious quick decision hoping it does not leak out.

“Umm Scott this is not good you know, we can not let this story out.” Rick says with a pale face.

“Agreed, we need to keep this one under wraps, or it will destroy any hope people have.” I say to him then look at Captain Winford,” Captain you and your men are never to speak of this to anyone, please.”

He bows and salutes “it will be as ordered My lord”

“Oh and about the my lord thing, drop it, it is Scott and your first name was Alexander right? It is nice to meet you my friend.”, I extend a hand out to him, he eyes me with confussino at first, then slowly takes it.

“I am glad to have met and be of service to you Scott” He replies with a smile creeping on his face, his demeanor shows happiness.