Back to Yonder for Publication, page 18
“Fair enough. Now you said you have a proposal?”
“Somehow, I’m fairly certain that you know at least part of what I’m going to propose. I’m also confident that you are a man used to being propositioned by women. Your status as a chosen of Sativa, along with the other… peculiarities about you must make you quite unique.”
Now it was my turn to lean forward. “Getting propositioned by beautiful women never gets old, even with five gorgeous wives. But we do have an agreement and they have a strict look but no touching policy, which only seems fair to me.”
She made that odd giggling sound again. “Oh? That’s too bad… touching is where all the fun is.”
“Maybe.” I shrugged. “Anticipation can be potent, as well. But I am willing to listen to your proposal.”
She set down her cup of tea. “Will you answer a question for me, first?”
I stared at her for a moment, trying to get a sense of what she might be after. I had to assume she wanted to know about my cultivation, or just in general what made me something she had never encountered before. “Possibly,” I eventually said, “but I make no promises to answer blind questions.”
Chapter 22 - Indecently Decent Proposals
She stared at me for a moment, her face too difficult to read. I made a mental note to never play poker with a fairy.
She let out an exaggerated huff. “Fine if you want to be that way. No being could have reached your level of power if they weren’t a cultivator, yet I’ve always been told that humans are completely unable to use mana. So please explain how you exist as you do—or, as I asked earlier, how you are so dense?”
“I know it’s rude to answer a question with a question, but I can’t help myself. Who told you that about humans?”
“Oh, it’s something I picked up over the years. When you’ve been around as long as I have, you hear a little something here and a little something there. Well… that, and I occasionally have conversations with Telmorra. Despite her strained past with my race, she is a useful friend to have. According to her, there is absolutely no mana on Earth—or perhaps whatever mana used to be there, has been gone for thousands of years.”
“I can say that magic is just a story on Earth, but then again so are fairies.”
She perked up and almost acted like she was preening herself. “Oh really, and what do your legends say about fairies?”
I smirked. “That’s a loaded question. In the world I came from, there are probably four different takes on fairies. The least common is one which simply fuels the sexual fantasies of men. Then there is the one which describes fairies as beings who steal human babies, replacing them with their own to be raised by the unsuspecting human parents.
“But probably the two most common takes on fairies are that they are ancient and somewhat dark beings who make compacts with mortals, often tricking them into making horrible deals. They are seen as capricious and somewhat cruel, rather than outright evil. The last view is more from the perspective of children, and is that of cute little winged women who go around spreading wonder and whose fairy dust can fulfill dreams.”
She frowned. “Children… spreading wonder… my, my, that is disappointing to hear. But I guess the rest all have a grain of truth to them, although I suppose that fairy dust is an alchemical ingredient. Now, will you answer my question?”
“Again,” I said, “that depends on the question. I’ll make you no promises and tell you no lies.”
“How is it that you cultivate mana?”
“I don’t cultivate mana, but that’s all I’ll say for now.”
She stared at me, and this time I felt her eyes piercing into me. It seemed like she was trying to dig out some secret from deep inside me. After a few seconds of this scrutiny, I asked, “And your proposal?”
“It is difficult to negotiate fairly, when I can’t gauge your true value…” She shook her head, then took things in an unexpected direction.
“That small boy who was in your tent, was he your son?”
I nodded, but then added, “Our deal wasn’t for endless questions.”
“Just one more, then. And your bunnykin wife is his mother?”
“It seems that you already have a great deal of information about me, so why ask?”
“Just confirming what I’ve been told.”
I gave a curt nod and left it at that.
“Then we should simply kidnap you and take you to breed. It would be quite pleasant for you, at least it will be for as long as you last.”
“Death by snu-snu? No thanks.” I snorted. “Hard pass.”
“Not exactly sure what snu-snu is, although I can reason it out from the context. Your world truly has some unique expressions.” Her grin didn’t meet her eyes. “But no, that wasn’t my proposal.”
She shifted in her seat, recrossing her legs, drawing my attention to her sculpted calves.
“My proposal,” she continued, “is that you marry me. If you can create a fairy-human hybrid who is free of the curse the gods placed upon us, then you would save our race. I wouldn’t demand that you mate with any of my daughters, but if you decided you wanted to, that would be fine. And,” she held a hand up to stop my almost automatic response, “before you protest, many of them are distantly removed from me so they are more like great grandchildren but with ten or more greats in front of it, than my direct descendants.”
“And?” I asked.
“And… what?” she asked, tilting her head to the side in obvious confusion.
“Well, if you have a proposal, that implies, you’re going to ask for something from me and in turn, offer me something back. I will confess, that our introduction hasn’t inclined me to helping you and yours, and I’m not sure if it’s a good thing for Olimero if I save your race… but I’m still listening.” I put extra emphasis upon the last word to remind her of our current non-aggression deal.
“True,” she admitted, “but you can’t blame a girl for trying to get something for nothing. And you know, it isn’t like you won’t be getting something out of the deal.” A seductive smile played over her full lips. “You’ve never had a fairy, have you?”
“Happily married,” I admitted, “and not hard up in that area, at all. You’ll have to do better than that.”
“Fine, fine. So, if you agree to this deal, no fairy will attack you, your wives, your assets, or your city. We will become trading partners with you, and I can offer several additional benefits.
“For your bunnykin wife, I’d be willing to invite her to share our bed. I’ve learned a thing or two about making love to women over the past few centuries. For your foxkin wife, we can teach her a way to use fire mana which has been lost to the world at large. For the elf, I would be willing to share alchemy knowledge with her, and can guarantee to give her at least three recipes for epic level potions she has never heard of. For your orcish wife, I can provide her with mithril for crafting and will make our enchanters available to enchant a piece of gear which she crafts for you and each of your other wives. Finally, for you hawkkin wife, fairies are the undisputed masters of flight, and we can teach her ways to use Air Mana that will dramatically increase her speed and maneuverability.”
I was immediately struck by two things—one of which interested me, though the other terrified me. The first thing, was that Delicia knew that I would be more inclined to respond favorably if the agreement benefited my wives, and it demonstrated that she knew she would need each of their blessings before I’d agree.
The second thing scared me. Somehow, she had a great deal of information about my family. I expected that she had spies who had been watching the caravan, but that wouldn’t have given her any information about Mursha or Daria.
Obviously, she had sent some of her people to Yonderton. If she could do that, then what was to keep her from harming my family while I was away? My heart quickened and I once again tried to calculate the odds of killing her and getting away from here if I moved right now.
What I needed most, was time to think this over. “Let me think for a minute,” I said. ”You must understand, I have offers from the gods as well.”
“I can give you a few minutes, I suppose,” Delicia said, “but don’t think on it too long, or I might start to feel slighted.”
With a nod, I pulled up the relevant quests from the gods. The first was the offer from Korkanis. It appeared to have been modified from what I remembered, but I don’t think I’d received a notification about any changes.
Sunglasses at Night III—You must willingly choose to follow Korkanis to obtain great rewards. At this stage, you have only to make the decision. If you do so, you will receive the following rewards:
1) 10% shadow flesh. Your body will be converted, so that it is 10% shadow. Shadow flesh is immune to physical damage and can only be completely destroyed by specific magical means. Shadow flesh is immortal, as it is made of both light and darkness—between which the shadows dance. Stealth is increased by 10%. Regeneration is quadrupled over your base.
2) You are already bonded with Rava, a former adherent of the shadow. If you willingly choose to pledge to me, I will also grant her 10% shadow flesh so that she may live on with you.
3) I will teach you how to form a one-sided bond with Nimeera. That way you can enjoy her as a plaything, which you obviously did once already. But with such a bond, you will gain power without having to share with her.
Ugh, I wanted to groan. Korkanis still didn’t understand me—not at all. It probably wasn’t his fault, though. He saw the world through his own darkly shaded lens.
When I looked further, I found that there was a pending quest from Sativa, as well.
Divine Consort—You must willingly pledge your loyalty to Sativa and agree to become her consort. You will be allowed to keep mortal wives and concubines, but Sativa will be your one and only divine bond.
Rewards:
1) Sativa will assist you in reaching A rank immediately.
2) Sativa will help to protect you from other gods and provide you a path for reaching the immortality of S rank.
3) You will still be allowed to complete the quests to create new hybrid races on Olimero, but your rewards will be doubled.
There were no quests from Mensor, which wasn’t a shock. The god of monsters claimed he simply wanted me to become who I was meant to be. Telmorra, interestingly, didn’t have an official offer. I shook my head. Maybe, I shouldn’t have been so rude to her.
More flies with honey and all that jazz.
Then, I looked at the joint quest, which was from Sativa, Korkanis, and Telmorra. Even it had been updated.
New Quest: Herald of the Triune- Updated to Herald of Olimero’s Pantheon
Difficulty: Variable
Time Limit: Variable
Description: The gods are not good at sharing, but they have accepted your proposal.
Current Requirements:
1) You must destroy the center of rebellion within the Untamed Lands in the name of Sativa.
2) You must keep Nimeera as your clerk for one year and listen to all her proposals with an open mind.
3) You must complete one task, as yet to be named, for Telmorra.
4) You must assemble a monster horde and destroy any one city of Olimero which is outside of the Untamed Lands OR you must defeat an elder dragon in single combat within the sight of any of the cities in the Old East.
5) You must remain free of the influence of Old Scratch
Rewards:
1) Immediate elevation to A rank and protection from other gods who would seek to destroy you. If you have reached A rank on your own before the time you complete this quest, you will be granted 4x S-grade magical items—one to symbolize your service to each of the gods of the pantheon.
2) A path to S rank will be provided.
3) 10% shadow flesh
NOTE: As a herald of the pantheon, any of the gods may assign you tasks. If any of those tasks conflict, then it will be up to you to find a middle ground.
That quest had definitely become far less appealing. I had only ever suggested it as a way to buy myself some time before I had to make a decision. I didn’t know how long I could keep the gods at bay, though. It looked like I would need to reach S rank before I even had a realistic chance to do so.
Of course, as bad as this quest was, the final offer was even less enticing. It remained the same—other than that the amount of immediate stat increases had been bumped from +25 per stat to +100 per stat.
Faustian Bargain
Difficulty: Easy but complicated
Duration: Sooner is better
Description: It is never all stick… sometimes the carrot works the best. Faust had the right of it. Don’t believe the lies they tell you. Spending what you can’t use to gain what you can is never a fool’s errand.
Objective: Trade your soul for rewards beyond your fondest dreams.
Rewards:
1. Your lifespan extended to 1000 years
2. Aid in furthering your cultivation to help you ascend beyond mortality
3. Immediate boosts of +100 to each of your stats
4. S grade item designed specifically for your needs
5. An irresistible drive with limitless libido—and my minion will become your plaything for the rest of your life.
It must have taken me longer to review the offers from the gods than I thought, because Delicia coughed to get my attention. “Am I really so boring that you zone out so easily?”
“No.” I chuckled. “I was just comparing your offer with that made to me by the gods. Their offers include some amazing rewards.”
“Of course they do, but they also come with far more strings attached, don’t they? All I’m asking to do is to become your wife—and not even your only wife. I’m not asking you to pledge your soul to me or to come live forever with me. Just to treat me fairly, like you do all your wives. I’ve watched you enough to know how you treat them.”
“There is nothing in your offer directly for me, though. All of it is intended to get my other wives to agree with your proposal.”
“Caught that, did you?” She picked up her teacup, but only played with it—turning it this way and that in her hands. “I like a man who sees what he wants and pushes for it. I will teach you what only gods, fairies, and a few monsters who would sooner feast upon your marrow than speak to you can do. I’ve heard that you have some ability with soul powers—I can teach you far more about them than anyone else. And will share everything I know about such skills, if you agree to my proposal.”
Interlude 3 - Opportunities
Josie was struggling. It was far more than the work of getting the caravan up the mountain pass. The pass was narrow but not that bad. Sheer walls rose up fairly high on either side, and Jasper had assured them that the forces from Weston made sure the tops of the cliff walls were free of any areas where bandits could set up ambushes.
No, most of that work was done by the teamsters and of course the horses who pulled the wagons. She occasionally went on patrol—mostly to give herself something to do—but to her it felt like Jasper didn’t want help, either from her or from Nimeera. Maybe the old orc was simply nervous about putting women attached to the Sheriff in potential danger, no matter how unlikely.
She really wished she had something more to keep her mind busy. As it was, she was left stewing about two questions, both of which were related. First, she kept asking herself if she had been unfair to Nimeera. The catgirl’s first time with Rob hadn’t really seemed that bad—in fact, she probably would have enjoyed it, had she been in the catkin’s shoes, not that she’d worn shoes. She wasn’t stupid enough, though, to deny that she much preferred Rob when he was his usual attentive self.
No, it was less about the experience and more about how Josie knew she had treated the shadow adherent. Nimeera had betrayed them once. But since then, time and again, she had done things for them—including helping to protect Lina and the others. She had played a big role in ending the slave trade in Yonderton. She had warned them about various attacks, and had been instrumental in their escape from Mensor.
Rob seemed to trust the catkin, or at least he was starting to trust Nimeera.
Lina, bless her innocent heart, had already completely forgiven the woman—and even the normally cynical elf was ready to accept her. Rava had made the point that the pull of a god was powerful and seductive, yet Nimeera had boldly stood up to Korkanis—even though it had resulted in her being cursed.
Maybe it was all some elaborate trap to sucker Rob in, but Nimeera had truly suffered under that curse. And she’d been very open with Rob about her intentions. No, that wasn’t it, and Josie knew it. She just didn’t want to admit it to herself.
Now, with Rob back in Yonderton, and with no pending danger, she was stuck with only her own churning thoughts for company. She didn’t even have Robbie to distract her with his cuteness. The toddler was a joy to have around, even if seeing the joy her husband found in the son her sister-wife had given him raised within her strange urges she had never expected to have. Still, that was the least of her concerns now.
