“Yes. You remember that event with the heroes and villains on the Battleworld, with the Beyonder?”

“I do.”

“The Beyonder brought one in from somewhere that had been trapped. Sama brought it home with her.”

T’Challa tapped his finger on the table thoughtfully. “I have seen too many things that the Hag has done ‘rashly’ that ended up being terrifyingly appropriate for the situation. I shall waive my concerns about an extremely dangerous alien species on that basis. She is adding yet another race to our collection of otherworldly friends?”

“Yes. And these require hosts, and they grant their hosts abilities, which are variable in nature, but as a decent starting point rival those of a Spider Totem.”

“That... is quite impressive,” he acknowledged after a moment of thought. “For both good and ill. I can see why they have a mixed reputation.”

“Yes. Their main issue from our standpoint is the lack of a moral compass. They basically exist to eat, find a host, and survive. That’s pretty much it. Not much of a foundation of moral philosophy. It’s something they have to learn from a host.”

“That would be an interesting relationship. I gather she is serving as the one’s host?”

“Yes. Advanced lessons on moral quandaries. Exposure to the Markspace. Sampling the genetics of the Golden Hag...”

He winced theatrically. “Ah, I assume these creatures reproduce by a form of fission, then...”

“Yes, and she’s been disseminating them among good people, slowly... and off-world. Their main issue is not one of spreading or control, it’s more about the origins of the species.”

He put his hand to his forehead. “My ancestors protect me!” he said dramatically. “Some dire secret in their past?” he asked expectantly.

“The creator of the race is an aspect of Oblivion dwelling in the void at the edge of existence, someone powerful enough to kill a Celestial, if not multiples of them. The klyntar are supposed to be his army of conquest, taking over his enemy’s soldiers and turning them against themselves... but unfortunately for him, the klyntar were enlightened by an outside force, rebelled against him, and abandoned him.”

“A god of the Void...” T’Challa mused slowly. “That is an ominous connection for any race to have.”

“From what I could discern, many of the symbiotes are only subliminally aware of it. Still, it’s yet one more Entity threat to have to deal with, and the bastard’s influence has had its moments over the last billion years or something...”

“I suspect there is a reason you brought this up?”

“Sama’s wondering if one of your Dora Milaje might want to volunteer as a host?” I asked winningly.

He almost guffawed at me. “You should have had my wife ask. She gets along very well with the Dora Milaje.”

“Sama asked me to ask you, not Ororo. Professional distance,” I smiled at him.

“The Hag considers it a good move?”

“She would prefer a Dora whose soul shines silver.”

He nodded once. “So, teaching responsibility and cooperation, yes. She trusts me even as she tests me, yes?”

“She’d like to see you standing up there next to her and Briggs, but you’re probably several decades too young yet. Plenty of room for the Big Two to expand to the Big Three, you know.”

“They have great expectations of me,” he mused, taking that seriously, instead of lightly.

“They do. They’d also like Wakanda to help Africa get its shit together, rather than letting the Askari drive it further into the mud, but eh, it’s your people, not theirs.”

“Wakanda’s isolation helped protect us for many years. There are still those among my people who have not forgiven either of them for outing us in the United Nations,” he shook his head sadly.

“That’s horrible. I feel so bad for them. Imagine the rest of the world when they found out a third-world country was being given a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, right alongside Atlantis, Russia, and the Tribal Alliance, and then discovering you were the most advanced human civilization on the planet.” I grinned cheerfully despite myself. “Your neighbors really drive down the real estate prices, however.”

“This is true,” he admitted with a smile. “The conflicts with them go back many centuries, indeed, and are not so easily smoothed over. If anything, they are only made worse by those who would like revenge after realizing they have no chance against us.”

“And thus, they turn to the Askar, wanting all the technology and wealth of Wakanda for themselves for nothing.” I sighed with him, both of us familiar with the mindset. “Well, we don’t save the planet for them, you know, but to give their kids a chance.”

“For which many would rather kill their children.” He shook his head at the mindset, then waved it off. “There are many radicals in the world. I suspect that the sheer scale of many of the threats and things that have happened contribute to them, and we can only do what we can.”

“Fear is a horrible thing to be motivated by,” I agreed. I glanced over at the others, flicked out my hand, and had a double deck of cards. “Ever play Spite and Malice?”

“I cannot say that I have,” he replied curiously.

“Easy game to play, big luck element, so not very serious, more social.” I began shuffling calmly. “You’ll pick it up in no time, Your Majesty.”

“I think you are fully entitled to call me T’Challa,” he murmured with a smile.

“Oh, I totally am, Your Majesty. But we’re keeping this formal so I don’t think about the other things I’d like to be doing with you.” I smiled back at him, and began dealing cards as he smiled as well.

---------

Days later...

It was interesting recalling having and enjoying so many relationships with so many different people.

One of the things I’d quickly glommed onto was the fact that if they had independent lives, to treat them that way, and so not to treat us all as interchangeable, because we were all different, even if we came from the same source.

So, keeping a formal relationship with King T’Challa was exactly what all of us would do, despite him being so maddeningly attractive with that silver soul and everything. Rarrr!

Storm shared with the rest of us, so all was good. None of us touched her or her kingdom, just like she would not touch any of ours. Even the Fatales weren’t going to raid the rest of us to sample our lovers. After all, they didn’t have any problems garnering lovers of their own, and weren’t they supposed to be engaging in wild flings while the rest of us were more sedate, or even eschewed the sexual side of things save for what the others did vicariously?

It all worked, as we all had different interests.

I was down sunbathing, working towards the full Ten Core, blown up to a thousand miles and dozing down near the surface of the sun, my favorite place to Meditate. I largely did not have to worry about being physically bothered here.

The Re-Duping had been discreet and quick, as normal, and lo, twelve or so thousand extra years of memories were dumped onto me for processing.

Those of the Four were refined and filtered, of course. My Dupes and Clones handed over the full array, exactly as if I’d gone through the War of the Seven Spheres myself on multiple fronts.

It wasn’t hard. They were all fantastically intelligent, they all harmonized with me, and they all had Timeless thoughtmodes, so the weight of passing time didn’t affect them. After going through the hundreds of millennia of Sersi’s disjointed and undisciplined memories, they were basically a walk in the park.

I smiled, because they’d naturally leveraged a lot of that time for the rest of us.

Most of the Duplicates were frozen at Twenty unless they got souls of their own to carry them on and past. Since we were all restricted in Class Levels, the ‘easy’ way to gain special abilities and powers was naturally denied us when shared, and it was worse when we all had different combinations of abilities and focuses on them. If we wanted to spread knowledge around to all of us, we had to keep it independent of Class Levels, and learn it all the hard way.

A thousand years gives a lot of time to learn stuff the hard way. Rep counts were one thing. Skills were another. Feats and Masteries and Power Stunts and the like were all on the table, too, as well as learning new Spells, Formulas, and the like, with the lore and experience of traveling some very distant worlds and dealing with the creatures who dwelled upon them, ruled there, or protected them all part of the process.

Sunny, for instance, had taken it upon herself to master every single musical instrument that she could during her down time. When she wasn’t dazzling the Seraphim with new spells of the Light, she was practicing all of the classical instruments of Terra, and occasionally many others. If she had to spend twenty, thirty, or fifty years on it, that was what the time was for.

Learning the hard way meant we all learned it. Learning it via Class Levels meant we needed those Class Levels or Skill Ranks to truly do the same. The fact it was not a combat or magical skill didn’t matter at all, in the end. There was probably nothing we valued in the end more than her taking out all that time to master all that music...

Nimue had basically availed herself of Agamotto, who had found himself with a student whose attention never wavered... and who didn’t allow his to waver, either. The amount of universal history at incredible levels she had learned over those thousand years was exhaustive, coming from a once-human Entity now a million years old. The amount of practice she had gained with Divination spells was unbelievably helpful for the rest of us, too.

Morgan was now the most experienced Scarlet Witch that had ever lived, having had a thousand years to temper, test, and transform her skills to a degree that even Hoary Hoggoth Himself had never seen. Her control of Chaos magic was at the point where, Hell yeah, she was the Scarlet Sorceress Supreme, there was no denying it, even if she never wielded it directly. Her more physical practice went to Oak and Thorn, and our staff and spear fighting skills were now some of the best on the planet.

Circe, being under the Mystic Moons of Munnopor, had concentrated on ki usage, and getting our Moon Dragon skills to the highest levels possible. Our fundamental unarmed skills hit a transcendental high under her years of practice. Her Skill focus was on philosophies, and she spent a LOT of time reading about philosophies from across the universe and The Mess, as well as Terra’s own, helping mold and re-affirm many of our own beliefs as she did.

Storm had taken it upon herself to be the one most engaged in direct combat, oddly enough, and had directly practiced Ocean Dragon Weapon skills religiously, wielding her own Ladyglaive and making herself into a truly dangerous martial combatant for the rest of us. All that was in addition to her mastering of her Storm Core and her Attunement to the fabric of reality, of course.

Felicia did the same with both Stealth-centered Skills and combat, focusing on Shadow and Fire martial arts, turning us into actually respectable martial artists. Ikonn was the clever sort who didn’t mind a very unconventional champion solving problems in intriguing ways, either.

Fedora, in between all her spell devising for Raggadorr and totally becoming his favorite sorceress ever, had set her goal to mastering the entire technological paradigm of every race we had met and who could do information sharing with us... or be stolen from, it all worked.