He reverted to Dirt Max. The priests didn't need the healing aura since they were mostly externally repaired and were inundated with Flower's rest and healing runes etched around their beds. She looked at the ceiling of the recovery room and sighed as if begging for patience. She suspected where this was going and didn't like the ramifications.
She held up a finger to the old priest and said, "One moment, please."
She looked at Miles.
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Max: We are sure there are no hidden gods on this world dropping flags, right? Or other rogue systems like you?
Miles: Anything is possible. Although they wouldn't have access to the terrestrial system and would be locked out of faith accumulation and the settings menu. They wouldn't be GOD gods, technically. I don't know how they would be able to plant the flags with the Logic system off, but they've had a decent amount of time to figure it out.
Max: Okay. Our immediate concerns are: 1. There are probably active but hidden gods or ex-gods out there. 2. There is a Class 1 to 4 threat --maybe-- somewhere out there in the hands of idiot children, and if they haven't killed it by now it's probably being fed and fattened up. 3. Our mercantile empire has yet to have enough time to launch, so that means we don't have a strong societal shield yet. 4. We have ageless priests who could possibly change our classes with their worship. 5. We have a horny vampire in the basement who I suspect can dream walk and Green is probably in his demesne, scheming on how to parasitize us for power. 6. Oh, and I'm probably going to start craving blood soon.
Max: Anything else?
Miles: I think that's all of the immediate problems.
Max: Suggestions?
Miles: We probably should bring one or two of those concerns to their Conclave. You suggested a portal to a sister realm. We could do that from inside the outer mound and start interrealm tourism and trade. They'd have to make [Bargain]s to enter, and we could negotiate that they'd have to defend the mound if they wanted to keep it open and available to them. We could make treaties that way.
Miles: As for the priests, tell them what to think, and maybe we can reinforce where we want to go in our classes that way and start accumulating [Faith]. We can [Rejuvenate] the old one so he's no longer an eternal geezer. We should find a way to pause the curse on the young ones to age the children to adulthood, too. I can imagine being stuck in the bodies of children for millennia and at the tender mercies of degenerate humans who did them no psychological favors was harrowing. We should set them up with immediate healing meditations and psychological repair. We have a library and a bookbinding program they can assist me and the children with.
Miles: As for your potential paramours, I'll leave that to you. I don't care. I will, however, kill them myself if they become threats to us. You may want to tell your butterfly king to tread lightly in his machinations. I can take his door in our demesne to his just as easily as he can to ours. The vampire, I'm mostly ambivalent to, but I find myself liking him a little. His electronic traffic is funny and I like how he sulks, even if he likes to threaten everyone but Sylvan. Honestly, you should use him when the urge to drink blood strikes. He seems into it. He and Merrick both would make passable fathers for my eventual dynasty.
Merrick: Uh? Max, I'm not ready for kids. Just so you know.
Max: Me neither, Puppy. Disregard his talk of babies. Those plans are for the far future. Do you have any suggestions? Are those all of our current problems and adequate counters to them? Any ideas?
Merrick: What's a Class 4 threat? And the slaves were priests?
Max: Class 4 is a danger to the world but not more than that: in this case, a magic-eating snake that eats like the most powerful devourer you could imagine. If allowed to grow to maturity, it would eat all life on the planet but wouldn’t be able to leave it. And yes, you brought home priests. Where are you?
Merrick: Running to the edges of the demesne. I do it to think. I do have a question and a suggestion, though.
Max: Let's hear it.
Merrick: Can you open more than one anchor to a single demesne?
Max: I can, but I’ve held off until now because it would be a security threat, honestly. You have no idea how locked down I have our one anchor. And I would have to leave the demesne to plant the new anchor which feels wrong to me, but I'm sure that's just magic and species mental tricks.
Merrick: We should open another one outside of the city. Possibly in another city, but I suggest a township. Not only would that give us another anchor in case humans or snakes destroyed the one in Central, but it would give us access to wherever we chose. If you chose a shifter town, we could use the pack as forward scouts and external meatshields in return for material and magical wealth. When you get your warehouse open, you can also distribute the food that comes from them through it. We could be an alternate trade route to the highway to transfer goods faster and safer to Central and also allow us to monopolize anything that came through. If we chose a town far enough away, they would welcome us bloodlessly for the opportunity to avoid the dangers of the road. You and I both are more dominant than most alphas and together we could supplant and rule any shifter town as an alpha pair. We would have to be a mated pair in that case, though, and you would probably need a wolf form if you don't already have one. We could set the town up as a mutual protectorate. If not a shifter town, try to negotiate with the fish in the Bay for anchor space. They would be open to the idea if you showed them a form like the one I dreamed about with you last night.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Max: ...
Miles: ...
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Max made a humming noise and turned to Miles with a look. She shrugged at him and he shrugged his little thorax back at her.
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Max: Do both?
Miles: Both. I can start fabricating defenses. Where do you want to put them?
Max: I'll have to look at a map.
Miles: No, the interior doors. Where do you want to put them?
Max: I can make another inner demesne to layer it away from the kids and elves. And away from Green's plans-- count the prison demesne burned until he starts acting more trustworthy. Maybe add more listening apparatuses around where he and Princess talk since they seem more open with their scheming with each other than they are with me.
Merrick: You could just make a transit hub in the warehouse, but tied through the store. That way, the logistics are easier. And there would be multiple demesne anchors between the hub and the inter-realm door and our home anchor, so anyone who is an outsider using any of the anchors wouldn't have access to our Court's home base.
Max: ...
Miles: ...
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Max had a suspicion. Puppy was never, ever this good at conveying his thoughts.
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Max: Puppy, weird question, but. Did anything happen after you drank my blood last night?
Merrick: ...
Merrick: Uh. I uh... I meant to say something sooner. After I woke up, I kept seeing the word "Initializing" and a percentage that kept ticking higher.
Max: What's the percentage at now?
Merrick: 5%.
Max: How long has it been since you noticed it?
Merrick: A few hours. I woke up at 3%.
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Max took a deep breath. She felt her body tighten and flinch, as if in anticipation for a blow. Breathed out slowly. Miles put a beautiful, golden leg on her hand. "We prepared for this. We wanted this to happen months ago. Nothing has changed."
The priests in the room were baffled at the two's silence and patiently waited for her verdict on their future. But they didn't matter at this moment.
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Max: I'd like to be there with you when you hit 100, so until then, can I get you to stick close to me for the next few days? Just in case. Also, I should give you the rundown of classes and a Do's and Don't's talk. Explain stats and stuff.
Merrick: So, I'm not going crazy? Do you know what this is?
Miles: It's a shortcut to power. We tried to give it to you before, but I guess we were missing activation ingredients. This also means that if the vampire or butterfly drinks your or Max's blood after getting somehow named as a demi, they will also get a system initiation, I'm guessing. Unless they don't have to be named demi at all and it's just the blood. In that case, the vampire has initiated because you already fed him blood. Or it could just be what you contributed to the door. If you got his nose and he got the vampire's bloodthirst, maybe you gave the system to them all? You should run an experiment with the basement vampire on that one.
Max: It's what Princess means when he says "Voice of the Gods". It's the System. Only Miles and I have it, that we know of, on this world. Now, so do you.
Merrick: Is it dangerous?
Max: Extremely. But not for us or you. We'll talk details of everything else when you get here.
Merrick: On my way.
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Max took a deep breath.
It's fine. It's all fine.
She redirected her mind from her worries about Puppy, the Princess, and Green, and how they would cope with a "Get Powerful Quick in One Easy but Murderous Step" shortcut and looked at her newly acquired clergy, and how all of their faces looked scared and hopeful. Already, color was leeching back into their complexions and when they were clean, she could tell that they all had the look of the devout about them. She guessed it also helped that they weren't muzzled and that their torsos weren't like burlap sacks filled with metal shards and foreign magic.
Fuck.
She breathed deeply again. Almost as if there wasn't enough air in the room. Today will be another long day. "You are all invited to be tentative members of the House of Max. You will have the rights and responsibilities of being members of my Court. But there are rules."
***
She spent hours talking and reiterating rules for the priests. Making them sign the [Bargain] that would protect all of them, existing court members and the new. She eventually walked them, going slow due to their injuries, to the library that she had plans to make into a world-class knowledge repository (but hadn't found the time to do so yet), and casually built a softly lit and comfortable barracks in the back of it for them. They oohed and awwed like she had delivered them a mansion, and she guessed that compared to a filthy cage in a slum, it was.
She felt bad because she thought it was lackluster.
Halfway through her enumerating and explicitly spelling out the exact roles open to them, Puppy wandered in and hovered in a corner. His eyes lingered on her and the smell of hunger was absent, but the smell of attraction remained. She could smell her own scenting the room, too, but hers had notes of fear and hesitation threaded within.
So, we are doing that, then. Okay. Time for the talk, I guess. It's fine. It's all fine. We are 'technically' married and members of a polycule-- thanks to the two scheming assholes-- however ill-defined, accidental, and muddled it is, so talks like these shouldn't be a big deal, right?
Gods and monsters, I hope this doesn't fuck our lives up.
He walked over to her, casually, and put a hand on the small of her back. She was just finishing up the sleeping area attached to a full service kitchen, complete with food and dishes, when he leaned in to whisper into her ear, "We should go see Aldred soon."
"Who's Aldred?" She whispered back.
"The basement vampire."
"Ah." She blushed, against her will and better judgment. "So I was right and that dream wasn't just a dream then. And you remember it too? He really did dream walk?"
"Yeah."
"Are you gonna ask me questions about it? About what you saw? About me?" She asked, fearing the worst. Expecting to be peppered with questions she didn’t want to answer. Dreaded answering.
"Nope." He simply said, and moved her long brown hair over her shoulder, tucked it behind her ear, and looked into her eyes.
Her dread fell away. The attraction smell coming from her bloomed from fearful want into what she could only guess was what attachment and devotion smelled like. She hated her new nose. She didn’t need an olfactory guide to her own emotions. They were so pungent she was surprised it didn’t stop the chattering flock of priests from chittering at each other mid-sentence.
Puppy said simply, “You’re my alpha. I don’t care about what came before. I care about what is, and what’s coming. I’ll protect you, you protect me, and you, me, and Miles will protect the kids and the court. Everything else is just details.” He breathed deeply through his nose and slightly smiled. “Let’s go see our fanged bride before he starts sulking too hard to answer all of our questions, though.”