Back to Yonder for Publication, page 5
I let Nimeera lean on my arm, as we walked toward the caravan which was still moving away at a plodding pace. Captain Jasper and three of his guards finally reached us. They were on foot so they were going to have to jog to reach the caravan, just like we would have to do.
“Are you okay, Sheriff?” Jasper called out.
“Yes, thanks for coming. I’ll fill you in on what happened…” I looked around. “But not here. We need to get back to the caravan and Nimeera needs to be checked out by Lina.”
He grimaced. “Okay, I told Vemilla not to stop the caravan until nightfall. I wanted to get some space between them and whatever that thing was.”
I could hear it in his voice; he’d left off the words, ‘in case you weren’t able to defeat it’, but I wouldn’t hold it against him.
He barely knew me, and the hydra had been terrifying. The fact that it was a construct made it even more so—but I wasn’t going to talk about any of that out here in the open.
Josie looked at Nimeera and then said, “Go ahead and carry her. I’ll run back with Captain Jasper and his guards.”
I hesitated. I’m sure the Captain was a decent warrior, but I didn’t want to leave my wife’s safety in his hands. Then again, she was pretty damn powerful in her own right. The fact she was letting me out of her sight, that she was telling me to do something kind for Nimeera was a significant step for her.
I simply nodded and said, “Thanks.”
Pulling the redhead in, I kissed her before releasing her to scoop up the catgirl in a princess carry. She didn’t weigh anything to my B rank body, but felt hot—like she had a fever, not just because she felt better than I’d expected in my arms. I streaked forward with her. Something really was wrong, and I’d be much happier once Lina had a chance to take a look at her.
Interlude 1 - Footprints in the Sand
Delicia, Queen of the fairies, flew in a bee-line—straight for the entrance to their hidden hive. What she had discovered was more than she could have hoped for.
The cowkin they had captured, Stan, had been right in what he’d told her—not that she thought he could have lied to her. The weight of Mind Mana her daughters had used on him was more than he could have resisted. The lesser races were like that.
No, what drew her attention was this Sheriff who was more than a man. Delicia was aware of humans, those odd beings which Sativa had brought from another world. Up to this point, though, fairies had ignored humans as the weakest of mates.
It might seem easy for fairies to capture mates and then breed numerous offspring with them, but there was more to it than any of the other races knew. The curse which Sativa—may she be forever blighted—had placed upon their people was a dire one. Fairies may have had the smallest and weakest bodies of the races on Olimero, but they had the greatest magic. Yet, because there were no longer any male fairies, they were forced to find males of other races to procreate.
Fairies were cruel by nature, but not suicidal or wasteful. It took something out of the lesser races to impregnate a fairy, a piece of the male’s essence which they didn’t get back. Many males were not even able to muster the strength for more than one pregnancy—let alone the orgy-like rounds of numerous females which the stories said were customary for fairies.
When they found a particularly strong male, they would try to sustain and nurture him, in order to get as many offspring out of him as possible. Her last mate had managed to impregnate four of her daughters after laying with her, and that had been quite a boon to their people. If it weren’t for their magically enhanced and incredibly long lives, the fairies would have died out as a race before now.
As it was, theirs was the only hive left—this one hidden place on the trade route to the frontier. They didn’t dare get any closer to the other races. Individually, the other races were not a threat, but because of their vast numbers, it would be far too easy for the larger races to erase fairy kind from existence.
It would be like the tide sweeping in to wipe away footprints in the sand.
So how did she react when she saw a male who not only was physically powerful, but was able somehow to detect them through their cloaking magic? A man who had the ability to absorb mana from the air intrigued her. No, intrigued was an understatement.
She was desperate to have him.
He had to be theirs. Delicia just needed to bide her time, test him, and then find a way to separate him from his mates and the others. Yes, he would sire an entire generation of fairies before they sucked him dry of his life essence, if only she could be patient.
She flew back to the hive. This was their hidden glade within the trees, but it was not of this world. It was a space carved out apart from the world. A place where they had sunlight, water, trees and flowers—all the natural beauty which the gods had tried to steal from them. The entrance was tiny, but it remained a connection to the material world.
Her daughter, Kasmet, flew silently beside her. Delicia was grateful that this daughter at least had the presence of mind to keep silent till they entered their realm. Oh, not all of the fairies were technically her daughters—though they were all descended from her. Her hive was the only one left, which meant they were all her daughters, or granddaughters, great granddaughters, and so on.
There was the tiny spatial opening in the tree which served as the gateway to their realm. It was a vulnerability, but if it were entirely sealed, there was no guarantee the fairies would be able to escape from the pocket dimension. What a nightmare that would be, to slowly wither away inside the pocket of reality, with no access to new life or new mana.
Kasmet entered the portal, but Delicia held back for a moment. She loved being in the overwhelming wonder that was Olimero. It was so alive. The mana here was chaotic and wild, so unlike the pocket realm of her hive, which she had long since mastered.
The chaos was refreshing.
She checked her mana reserves. Of all the species on Olimero, fairies were the ones who had the greatest mastery of mana. She personally could control: Construct, Mind, Spatial, Size, and Electric Mana. Most of her daughters had mastered between two and four of the mana types—though they all had Mind and Size Mana in common.
Her reserves of Construct Mana had been almost entirely drained by whatever that man had done. He had some strange type of power which she didn’t yet understand. But Delicia lusted for it—both for the power, and for the man.
She had not seen any of the larger races who made her blood pump in too long a time. No, he would be hers and she would unravel all of his secrets. If what his females had said was accurate, he might well be the key to the creation of a new type of fairy, and perhaps even a male fairy.
A plan was already forming in Delicia’s mind. Yes! She grinned and then giggled. It was a sound which would have struck fear in any being who truly understood what she was. She might not be a goddess, but as an ancient fairy she was an A-ranked existence. Only some of the great ancient dragons could compare to her.
Yes, she would take what she wanted from this man. He would even give it to her willingly—because that was her power. She’d decided that this time, she would even allow herself to enjoy it. Pleasure was something she deserved, and he would give it to her, repeatedly.
Only when she was done with him, would she give him as a toy to her daughters—a toy to play with until they finally broke him. If he was as strong as the over-worlders implied, that would take some time. But everyone broke… in the end.
She giggled once more and then darted through the entrance to her realm. She had plans to set into motion.
Chapter 5 - Past That
As I ran to catch up with the caravan while carrying Nimeera, I telepathically alerted Lina and Rava that she seemed to be injured again, and might need more healing.
“You can put me down, now.”
Nimeera’s voice pulled me out of my telepathic conversation with my wives. “What? Why? You still look pale.”
She frowned, raising one hand to her cheek.
“Sorry,” I said. “I’m not criticizing, just concerned.”
“Not exactly what a woman wants to hear from a man she is supposed to be seducing,” the catkin muttered to herself.
“What?! I thought we were past that…” My voice trailed off with uncertainty. This really was an odd situation.
I’d adapted to the idea that Lina was always going to be shoving clerks at me—because in her mind, the more women I bedded, the better I would feel. It definitely took a bit of mental adjustment to get used to, coming from Earth.
The rest of my wives might not all be as gung-ho about it as Lina, my Mistress of the Sheets, but they all agreed with the basic principle. Now, Nimeera—a woman, who I was undoubtedly attracted to on a number of levels—had become my newest clerk because of a deal I’d struck with Korkanis, the god of shadows.
And I was supposed to bed her, but hadn’t found the time or the motivation to do the deed—primarily because of the odd circumstances surrounding her joining my family.
She sighed. “Korkanis obviously doesn’t think we are ‘past that’.”
My brows furrowed. “Why do you say that?”
“I’m not hurt from battling that monster. Oh, sure… it wore me out a bit, but this weakness is because Korkanis has done something to me. After my previous failure, he doesn’t trust me to carry out his orders.”
“He can’t think that just because I sleep with you that I’m suddenly going to bend my knee to him. I mean, I’m sure it will be uh…” I felt my cheeks heating. “… fun, but that isn’t going to get me to pledge myself to the god of shadows.”
Nimeera got a wry grin on her face. “You’re really making this a challenge, aren’t you?” Then she shook her head. “No, he believes that is only the first step, but what he expects to follow… I don’t really know. It isn’t like he revealed all his plans to me.”
She leaned her head back against my shoulder as I carried her. “I don’t think he trusts me anymore, so who knows what he is actually up to.”
“Fair enough. Not like I…”
She cut me off as I was replying. “Just so we’re clear, I chose you over him. I won’t try to force myself on you. Korkanis and the Cult of the Raven saved me when I was a child on the streets. I don’t have any problem with the shadow. Korkanis really is a god, and his power is beyond anything I can imagine, but he isn’t the only choice. You have to choose the path which is right for you. I’ve seen that followers of Korkanis, Sativa, and even one of Mensor’s have fallen for you. You aren’t of this world and that gives you a magnetic appeal which is impossible to deny.”
“Oh?” I grinned down at her. “Now look who is saying the wrong things. My appeal is only because I’m a stranger from another world?”
She smiled. “If you like, I’ll show you just what I find so appealing about you. I promise, I won’t scratch… much…” As she spoke, she flexed her hands and her claws all popped out with a schttk sound.
“There she is. I was starting to wonder what happened to the old Nimeera.” I shook my head. “All in due time, though.”
“I really must be losing my touch,” she grumbled with a sigh, but then we reached the caravan.
I laid her down in the wagon beside Lina and Robbie and helped Rava out of it. “Do what you can to restore her strength,” I instructed our healer. “I need to speak with Rava and then go bring Josie back. Not about to leave her out there with potential enemies about.”
Lina leaned out the back of the wagon to kiss my forehead. “I’ll heal your little pussy so she’s ready for later, but I’m beginning to think there is only one thing which will cure what ails her.”
I rolled my eyes. “Is that where your mind goes every single time?”
“Is that so bad?” She batted her long lashes at me.
“Not at all,” I replied with a grin.
Picking up Rava, I pushed with my ki empowered legs till we were well away from the wagons. I explained to her about the monster we had fought, the way I had been able to detect the fairies, and the strange response I’d gotten when I tried to use my Soul-Eater skill.
“You said you had notifications,” Rava said after a moment’s thought. “Have you checked them yet?”
“No, I got distracted with bringing Nimeera back here.”
Rava snickered.
“Oh? I can imagine carrying her body pressed up against you would be quite the distraction,” my elven wife replied.
When I was about to protest, she added quickly, “Not that I mind. None of us do. Well, Josie may mind—a bit—but she is slowly coming around.”
“Slowly being the operative word,” I mumbled.
“Speaking of slowly… I may not be a hand-maiden of Korkanis any longer, but you did make a deal with him. I wouldn’t wait too long to honor it.”
“I’ll make a priority of that after we sort out this issue. Now give me a moment to check my notifications.”
Contact with new mana type: Mana Construct.
Absorption of Construct Mana commencing.
Mana Fusion: +1
New by-product detected.
By-product Manipulation: +1%
That was the first set of notifications. It confirmed what I already suspected—the hydra wasn’t a real monster, but a magical construct. It made sense…
Wait. Who was I kidding? I was thinking it made sense, given what I knew about fairies. But I needed to remember that the fairies from the books, movies, and games back on Earth might have absolutely nothing to do with fairies in Olimero.
These could be anything from baby-stealing fairies to Tinkerbell for all that I knew.
The second notification was a new one, but something for me to file away for later.
Your sentient weapon, Bargon’s Slice, cannot grow from a construct creature. He requires the blood of living monsters—the stronger the better. Failure to feed him with sufficient blood will weaken the bond between you.
Ugh, more people—though I guess the sword wasn’t really a person… more entities to keep happy. Happy wife, happy life couldn’t possibly apply to me. I had five wives, a new potential lover in Nimeera, and a number of clerks and such all looking to me. All of whom I felt some obligation to keep happy, even if for some of them that was simply my desire to be a good employer.
If that wasn’t enough, I had no less than five deities focused on me—each with their own agendas. I needed to keep at least some of them happy, if only to keep them off my back. Then, I had an entire town—and now a caravan of merchants—looking to me. My plate was definitely overflowing.
The next notification wasn’t shocking.
Soul Eater skill failed. Creature has no soul.
I guess that was the final confirmation it was purely a magical construct. That meant that one or all of the fairies could make creatures simply out of magic. A part of me was anxious to see what I could do with the by-product of that mana. But for now, I needed to focus.
The final notification was perhaps the most troubling.
You are channeling ki into a secondary portion of your body.
Josephine Case is a unique entity, but soul bonded to you. Some aspect of your body control will relate to her.
A nascent core is detected. Do you wish to fill that core with ki?
If you fill her core to the point that it becomes an F rank core, then Josephine Case will become a subordinate cultivator. Her existence will be further tied to yours, and you will continue to mutually empower one another based upon whatever contract you form at the moment her core begins to spin.
Warning: Risk of death is significant if her core fails to form properly.
Thankfully, this wasn’t a situation where my failure to answer had resulted in the process continuing forward. Or maybe it would have, if I hadn’t stopped pouring ki into her. It seemed like doing so had helped her heal and restored her to health. This, however, was different than my simply willing her to be well and trying to force my vision of wholeness onto her flesh.
“Is something wrong?” Rava asked.
“It’s the notifications. The first few were nothing special. I confirmed that at least one of the fairies was able to use Construct Mana and created that hydra. That’s why it disappeared. I got a couple of level ups from the fight, too—mostly for dealing with a new type of mana.”
“That doesn’t sound bad enough to make you frown like that,” Rava said, laying a hand on my cheek.
I sighed. “I also learned that my sword is getting antsy for more blood, but we can talk about that later. What has me concerned, was the notification about Josie’s core.”
