Mathew

Clare meant to kill Grant. The moment pregnant with violence seemed to stretch out. The armored plates that comprised his Territory reinforcement drew tight in opposition to the apparent threat.

"Hello, Miss Jackson," Grant replied.

If it wasn't for his Mental Attack intelectus, Mathew wouldn't have known the panic Grant was going through.

"Come to parlay, have you?" Grant continued.

As if those words were magic, Clare stopped broadcasting her intent to kill. Like a light switch, the weight in the air evaporated.

"Yes, negotiation, among other things," Clare stepped around the table to an empty chair. "This is the most delectable food I have encountered in far too long. I hate to impose, but may I have a bite?"

"Anything for a guest," Mathew smiled, dropping his exoskull for the first time in front of everyone. "Everyone, this is our guest Clare Jackson. Clare, these are the other survivors I spoke of."

"Oh, introductions. Where are my manners?" Clare full curtsied in her dress. "Clare Jackson, Queen of the Blood Spiders and savior of wayward proto-alphas. Here is my gift as a gesture of further goodwill."

Clare handed Mathew Ripper across the dining table.

Having Ripper in hand again, Mathew equipped his blade.

[Carrion Ripper

Crafted from the living bone of the Carrion Knight and tied into the Legacy of the Knighthood, this weapon is aligned to Corruption magic.

Passive: Improve tolerance to temperature. Comfortable range expanded 50 degrees Fahrenheit

Active: +3 skill in ambush, mental support and mental attack when using this weapon

Permanent:

40% affinity +.4 durability

90% affinity +4 durability]

[Carrion Ripper equipped

+5% affinity Alpha dominance

+10% starting affinity racial

+10% starting affinity aligned magic

+20% affinity growth

Racial cost: Daily reserves cost of 40 reserves will be drawn from your pool to maintain Carrion Render. Additional reserves will be drawn from your pool to repair damages

Magical cost: Daily cost of 20 magical digestion points will be drawn from your pool to grow corruption alignment]

Connecting with Ripper, the overdue payment of reserves and digestion magic were drawn from him. Mathew could feel how the pools connected with a conduit of blue 'system' energy. For the few seconds in which Ripper called its due, he could feel the membrane of its reserves.

With thousands of his own reserves available that drain wasn't noteworthy. Ripper eating half his available magic was a sudden shock. His response to that shock was foreign.

Pride swelled up within Mathew. This was an accomplishment of note. A strong hive is a worthy goal, and he had done just that. The comforting presence of Ripper settled into his mind. The itch that had scratched away at him, the sadness he couldn't name, these feelings that made him lesser faded away.

"Thank you," Mathew said thickly. "You don't know what this means to me."

"You are welcome. I may have some idea, Sir Knight," Clare turned her chair ninety degrees so she could sit with her own sword freely accessible.

"No need for goodwill gifts here," Amber flashed a stunning smile and passed a steaming stone platter. "Just being people is good enough."

Clare tilted her head, red eyes curious. "But what if I'm not?"

"I ain't no fool now. I know people. Mathew is people, and so are you." Amber drawled with the nonchalance reserved for mundane topics like the weather.

"Are you the one who saved Mathew the night the Spire broke?" Harper asked.

"I even lost my favorite blade doing so," Clare took her first bite of Harper's cooking.

"Thank you," Harper said. "Um... Grant said there weren't any other survivors. That if you became worth the notice of the local wildlife, they'd find and eat you... where did you come from?"

"Survival without an Alpha is a death sentence here in the wilderness. I am an Alpha, or at least close enough to get by so far," Clare answered. "Mathew, I take that you are trying to cohabitate with humans?"

Pulling himself together, Mathew tried to get the conversation back on track. "Yes, I'd like to save as many people as I can. In fact, before you came to join us for dinner, Grant was trying to convince me to give up on my plan. I'd like to get your opinion."

"Oh, you want for something?" Clare raised a brow.

"uh, yes." Again, Mathew felt as though he was having a conversation with a foreigner. The way she spoke was just off. "I'd like to expand my Territory and use that to bring more people to the safety we are building here."

"I see," Clare pressed her lips into a line. "And you want my opinion?"

Mathew nodded.

"You can't do it, not on your own. It will be a stretch for you to reinforce and hold this position. I couldn't sense how energy dense this Spire was behind the threat left by The Night Stalker, but you are sitting on a treasure, and your camouflage is falling apart." Clare eyed Mathew up and down. "But you knew that, so you came to find me for help."

Clare's accuracy or insight seemed too uncanny. Mathew risked brushing her surface thoughts with his Mental Attack skill. Ideas, images and sounds flited like a flip book of random pictures.

For a moment, he feared she was well and truly insane. He could tell that she wasn't spying on the situation with a skill or magic. Instead, these were deductions. Clare's mind was so fast he couldn't follow it. Definitely not while trying to be unnoticed. Her cognition stat must be several times higher than his own.

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"To be honest, even with the help I am willing to offer, your odds are not good. There are some factors in your favor." Clare gave a so-so gestured. "The fall of the land that was once The Colony caused a dust-up. Many local Alphas are recovering. Some of the winners have reached as much Territory as they have the strength to hold. That may give you some time to get stronger... but not enough time. Unless you rapidly grow as a Carrion Hybrid. Even then, there is only so much I can do to help you keep your sanity."

"What if my human side grew faster than you're used to? Say twenty times faster?" Mathew asked.

"Non-human lifeforms do funnel their type of energy to their Alpha, but humans are different. Their 'human energy' seems to go into making the system and classes. Having a hundred people didn't do anything to keep the Hybrids at The Colony balanced," Clare frowned. "I'm sorry. I know being a Hybrid seems like a burden you can handle at first, but its weight grows too heavy too fast."

Shaking his head, Mathew shared his Territory status. "I hear no one else has been able to pass their Alpha Ascension. So you probably haven't seen this before. Essence is what is used for leveling up. There used to be a 95% tax to the Eastern Kingdom of Knights. We don't pay that anymore."

Even with her unnatural cognition stat, Clare paused for several seconds to absorb what the information meant.

"Power enough to survive and balance to never lose yourself... Oh, how I envy you." Clare's words were quiet and bitter. She shut her angry eyes and smoothed her dress before the poised mannerisms returned. "You do not have time to learn by trial and error, but there is an opportunity for you to get your heart's desire."

"The citizens in my Territory also level faster than The Colony did," Mathew remembered the visions from Caustic Resolution. He wanted Clare's suffering to be over, for her to have unbroken hope. "Would you like that to include you?"

Only his Mental Attack skill allowed Mathew to pick up on the pang of pain she went through.

Clare replied. "I no longer have full access to the system anymore. After my time spent as a mindless monster, the world itself does not consider me human. I am not opposed to gaining human levels faster, but I can not believe it will work for me. Go ahead and send me an invitation. I am willing to try."

Mathew didn't know how to do that, but everything else worked by willpower. So he marshaled his focus and pushed. When the notification popped up effortlessly, he felt a bit silly.

[Mutable Territory Mantle active:

Annex Clare Jackson (unnamed Territory)

Yes/No]

Clare did say she was willing. Mathew selected Yes.

The interlocking plates of his Territory reinforcement expanded and pressed into Clare's Territory. Rather than press against the weight of her control, they seemed to overlap.

Water spilled across the dinner table as Clare's white-knuckled grip pulverized her stone cup. Ben's jumping back was totally ignored by Clare who stared into the middle distance.

Through his mental spying, Mathew could feel the struggle happening at an excruciating speed of thought. Her high cognition drew out the subjective experience for every second that passed. Simply put, Clare's Monster instincts rejected being dominated, but her rational mind was trying to force a surrender.

"Are you alright?" Harper asked as Clare began to shake.

The overlapping of Territories wavered before snapping like a rubber band. Having all his reinforcement launched back to his Territory was a shock to Mathew's senses.

"You are not strong enough," Clare's growled words matched Mathew's self accusations.

"Yeah, I see that. How about you help me get stronger?" Mathew offered.

"We- I think we can make a deal," Clare said.

That threw Mathew for a loop. He'd heard Clare say negotiation, but he somehow didn't think they were really negotiating. After all, he didn't have anything she couldn't get on her own. Mathew kinda just thought, as one of the few humans alive in hundreds of miles, they'd help each other.

"uh, yeah, what do you want?" Mathew asked, regretting putting all his cards on the table. His cognition gave him enough time to recall Clare's words, "Oh, you want for something?"

"Maybe you would like to speak in private?" Clare's surface thoughts raced and fractured in rapid conflict.

He did not want to be alone with crazy. Mathew had a guess as to what her odd affectations were. The odd way she talked and why Grant's words neutralized her aggression. She acted like a medieval fantasy setting was normal.

"You can consider everyone here to be advisors," Mathew said.

"Even of your sex life?" Clare's mental stream cleared as he played into her mentality.

"Wuh, No!" Harper exclaimed.

"Fucking cursed," Ben muttered.

Intimate considerations had been the last thing on Mathew's mind since he was abducted. "A private conversation, yeah, sure."

Clare brushed the rock dust from her hands and stood. "My apologies for the mess. Maybe another time we can share a meal together."

Mathew's mind tried to work as he and Clare stepped outside into the fading light of the sunset.

Clare's hand on his arm no longer felt like an opportunity to be a classy gentleman but rather an expression of the twisted world Lerternum was. Mathew ignored the itch to pull away. From that very same motivation, he wished he could understand her better so he could face the problem and fix it.

As they walked up to the broken peak, Clare broke the silence. "I can feel the vitality spilled into the rocks. This land will produce more Alpha energy because of it."

Grunting his acknowledgment, Mathew tried to find words for his questions.

His struggle was ended when Clare spoke again, "Just business. I need to be with child to offload excess Spider Essence and maintain my sanity. Also, to keep my subordinates from fighting over me. You need something I have. I need something you have. So we can make a deal."

"You want to have a baby with me?" Mathew asked.

"Not with you, per se. By you. I will not lay any claim to holding you responsible." Clare sounded composed. Her mind was using fantasy to consider this a normal request.

Mathew really looked at her. She was beautiful, graceful and strong. Many other times in his life, he'd say yes without looking back. To him now, the idea of having a kid and not being in their life was selfish and morally bankrupt.

"If you have enough human to balance you out, you wouldn't even need that?" Mathew asked.

"No, I wouldn't," Clare agreed.

"Then why ask?" Mathew continued to press.

"Because I do not trust you will live and get strong enough without going crazy. Please understand I have shared Territory with a Hybrid Alpha before. He was feral during that time," Clare sighed. "Not that I was much better. I digress. He had no interest in me. If you lose your mind, I will not be able to rely on you. Finally, I can not even face the alternative of mating with one of my inhuman spider children. I fear my sanity may not be that strong."

Clare's voice cracked at her final admission and, with it, Mathew's stubbornness fell apart. There were lives on the line here. The situation may be messed up, but he wouldn't be evil for accepting.

"Heigh-ho," Mathew held up two fingers. "How about this? If I'm losing myself or not strong enough, then I'll sleep with you. But you have to do your best to support me. And two: if I become a father, I get to be involved."

"Not good enough. There is no guarantee I can get pregnant right away. My Hybrid nature leaves too much uncertainty," For a moment, Clare's mind showed Mathew she was scared. She needed to get out of her own headspace.

"Well, you better get comfortable with uncertainty. Because I'm literally attached to my chastity belt," Mathew snorted. "To think I chose to make my helmet optional first. Anyway, think about it this way. There's a chance I get strong enough to be accepted by your spider side. There's a chance I give you the baby you're looking for. And there's a chance of total failure. Two-thirds is better odds than you've overcome already."

"I- Well, I do not know how you go from possible outcomes straight to odds. Seems to me as though you missed a step... Maybe I am being too fearful," Clare said as her mind whirred. "How does Mr. Chastity plan to sleep with me when he can only show his face?"

Mathew willed over his skill and perk information. "I'd need to level more, and then it'd take days after I confirm a new Armament."

"Okay, I accept your proposal," Clare nodded.

"We will save lives," Mathew promised himself as much as Clare.

They stood at the broken peak, watching the horizon that had eaten the sun cast its dying rays across the clouds.

"You know, I'm not a monster," Clare said. "I'd never force any-"

Mathew interrupted, "So long as you do your best to train me, you won't be. So tell me, what do I need to know about being an Alpha?"