Anjali and I are lieing on the ground. At some point I have conjured a ground cover of soft hay. „You are trouble, I must say. Very enticing trouble. One of those women my relatives warned me of.“. I hear a soft glissando and Zewrepa asks „May I ask some questions?“. I respond „Later. Anjali will be happy to answer all of your questions in great detail.“. The condemned woman only grunts.
„Didn’t you yield awfully fast?“ I ask. Anjali sighs. „I was barely holding on. She is a bright and persuasive girl, but she alone wouldn’t have turned me. I was also working against a curse, I lost against then and there.“
Zewrepa leaves. Anjali comments „That was strange.“ „Why?“ I ask and go on „Didn’t you also service couples?“. She hesitates a bit before she answers „Yes, but they were couples. That made it different.“ „Don’t worry, I think her main interest was curiosity. And I think she is going to compose a rhapsodic piece called The Perilous Mating of Anjali and Peregrinus.“ I only get her to hide her face with her hands and produce an unintellegible sound.
She turns to me and says „This isn’t natural, I think. Though I am afraid I don’t know what is natural. A wizardess would be mistress of her own affairs. But I am not a wizardess. When my grandfather sold me, I had never been unsupervised with somebody not a member of the household.“
„Does anything about this setup suggest to you that there is even the slightest hint of things being natural around? We did it next to the paralyzed demon concubine of an Atlantean wizard several millenia old being watched by another demon in a hidden basement of an underground base full of exotic magic. I am a magically created man, whose soul has been summoned from another universe. Naturalness left us long ago. We’ll do what we want to do, if we are lucky, and we’ll do what we have to do to survive, if we are less lucky.“
„You are just evading my question by turning this into an absurd comedy.“. I shake my head „Our situation is absurd. I merely have to tell it like it is. Sure I could outright tell you that your questions have no answers. Would that help?“ Her answer is more forceful than I expected „Yes, it definitely would. What are you going to do now?“ I shrug „I’ll offer Leuma a greater share of the loot and look at what has changed. Then we’ll have another of those meeting you love so much.“ She tenses „Are you aware that she can hear us?“. I grin „Absolutely. I can monitor her physiology. In fact …“. I check the curse on her. It is outrageously simple. It worked only because it was placed already inside her barriers. I use a disspell. She stirs.
I think it is time for utter honesty. „A succubus is ultimately a parasite. They have to have people around. Some people would rather perish while in full control of the situation, instead of winning by giving up control. A succubus cannot afford that attitude.“
Leuma speaks up „You are right. And neither are you. That makes cooperation with you so attractive.“
Real anger is creeping into Anjali’s voice „But you deem yourself a carnivorous predator? Mighty, but depending on the luck of the hunt, ready to take somebody else’s kill if the opportunity arises?“
I prop myself up „No. I am a herbivore. Or maybe an omnivore. Consider this: A predator needs to leave some prey alive if he wants to eat next year. I am under no such constraint.“
The look in her eyes may be genuine horror.
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„He felt like a real wizard in that moment.“ Anjali confesses. Branislava adds „I was sort of relieved when you attacked that village. At least I knew he wouldn’t pick us as as the objects of his darker needs. The more I see of him the more his deepest trait seems to be caution. I think before I got pregnant he would have driven me mad if we were married. Nothing would have just been done quickly or spontaneously. Now, of course, I’ve had enough excitement for ten lives.“ In an amused voice Melo says „That sounds like Marental. He, however, just executed people who were not ready to totally abide by his concept of acceptable risks. In exceptions he was ready to act quick and decisively, though.“ Leuma affirms that „Whatever you think about Marental, you cannot say that he was slow in the head in any way. He understood that sometimes you need to act with determination. In fact, Peregrinus was one of these occasions. I confess that I don’t know the details. Did Ragnarök force him to act rashly? Possible, but I cannot confirm it. Deep down he was lonely, but I could not fill the gap. He often talked about rather technical stuff, but I never learnt some fundamental secrets.“ Anjali asks „How long were you his concubine?“ „74 years. And before you ask, he knew alchemical means to really slow down ageing. Caution was very much a core value to him. He poured that into his divinations almost to the last hour. Overshadowing a soul is hard. He needed to go the path of least resistance. That is why we found one of his major divination aids.“
„That is interesting“ I say, having overheard her last remarks, and go on „Some of it is just a function of age. If nothing of great duration happened to me in between the last memory in my world and arriving here, I am 88 years old. Anjali, that is also part of the reason you find me taking so much into the absurd. At my age, you really learn how much of an influence pure luck has on our lives.“ Anjali recovers quickly „You do remember?“. I clarify „In part. Personal memories come back least or slowest. Is that because Marental had to be most thorough blocking them to overwrite me?“
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Leuma confirms that „Yes. In some cases they may never come back. Or rather you may not want them back. Marental mentioned that to keep his personality stable he would have to reject memories antithetical to his personality. He couldn’t remember stuff he couldn’t imagine or understand himself ever doing. Literally.“
I shrug „I will have to think about that very deeply and calmly and then I may have a lot of questions. In the mean time you are probably wondering why I am not down in the basement staring at the power source and filling the blackboard with observations on how he built it and changed the enchantments on it.“ They all immediately nod. I sigh „You are probably right. I have interrupted my work because I’ve found out what he has done and that makes how he has done it, moot, even though I do not fully understand why he has done it. In short his curse has erased the internal mana supply from the power source itself to the governing mechanism of the power supply. It is now operating on internal reserves and will shut down after too many regulatory interventions. I do not understand why he didn’t just shut down the power source without damaging it.“ Hildegard answers without any delay „Internal security. He couldn’t let his enemies use a traitor to shut down his defenses while they were searching for him or even attacking. The failure has to be delayed, but must render the power source worthless to an attacker.“ That is what I call a sharp military mind. Anjali winces „I did what I had to do. I did not want this, but I am not sorry.“. The others look at her with disapproval with exception of Leuma, especially Branislava, who would suffer most during an evacuation.
Leuma asks „Do you want me to explain why I rejected your offer of a greater share of the loot?“. Before I can answer, Zewrepa interrupts „Practical stuff first. How long do we have, what can we do to extend that time, and can you repair or replace the power source?“ „I will need to make measurements, but from a gut feeling, weeks, not months. We have to limit the number of power changes. Once we are done discussing stuff, I want you to switch on all lights you can practically switch on, put the hearth and the oven on and let the showers run continously with warm water. As far as replacing the power source, I will look at replacing power to Melo’s tree’s chamber with power from the spikes we’ve found. Now, that Hildegard has mentioned it – a big thank you, Hildegard – even trying to repair the power source would be a bad idea. There are most likely traps in it. It would probably just explode if I tried that without knowing exactly what I am doing.“
Zewrepa produces a sound like a piano dropped from the second floor. She continues vocally „I am tired of fighting and almost losing against just the relicts of an enemy. Though I must confess it is kind of exciting in the same way Anjali simulating sexual intercourse on top of paralyzed Leuma was. Women fighting women for unnecessary sexual stimulation is a delightful perversion.“. I cannot help myself. I say „Perhaps Anjali will give you lessons.“. Perhaps these words have not been wise in a universe where the possibility that looks can kill actually exists. I make it worse by bursting out laughing.
After many seconds of only me laughing, Anjali shrugs and says „I probably deserved that. Zewrepa, no I will not give you lessons, but I will answer your questions. Somebody has to. It better be me than Leuma. And while we are at it, why did you refuse the offer?“
Leuma unfolds her arms and looks Anjali directly into the eyes before she answers „Something extraordinary is happening. Perhaps it is just Ragnarök. Perhaps it is more. Part of it is happening here. We can create something extraordinary. Any by we I mean just not Peregrinus and we hang on. We all can, and if we wish to survive, have to contribute. If we survive, we can expect extraordinary rewards. If we don’t survive, the afterlives won’t be what they used to be. We have to do our utmost to enable optimal cooperation.“ I cannot see anything in Anjali’s face. Leuma does not suffer from my limitations. She adds „He has already done something economically extraordinary.“. In a grumpy voice Anjali answers „He has made mithril from trash.“ I think the surprise Leuma shows is real. She responds „We will have to discuss this. Tomorrow. You have been treating Peregrinus as the wizard, whose powers you fear even if you profit from them. You have been leaving him alone with them. Yes, some of you also treated him as a man. That was better. Some of you treated him as a fighter and commander. That was also good. The youngest one treated him as one whom she let love her. That was important. Yet he will have to be Peregrinus the combat warlock, if we are to come out of this alive. Tomorrow we will listen to his findings so far. And we will try very hard to understand him and find out how we can support him.“
She stands up and adds „But first we will notice that he is exhausted. This man needs a warm shower. And then he needs me to have dinner out of him.“ The words „Out of him?“ slip out of Hildegard. Leuma’s smile broadens into a grin.