“After the talk we had yesterday, why on Astoria would you think this is okay?!” Katie seethes as she stomps around her mini-castle on Atropos. Most of the building has clean styling in polished indigenous stone and is left unadorned so people that walk in can feel the weight of the building around them. Her conference room is ostentatious, but I try not to judge. Her bedroom is enormous and outfitted for group activities. Thank Andromeda Katie didn’t bring any “attendents”.
“Katie, I don’t think it’s okay! I am so fucking angry because of whatever this imbalance is, and it literally hurts me to be full of aether. I was trying to be responsible and try to cull the solo mobs on the edge of the herd, but no Elysium has tier 3 beasts roaming the noob area! And what else am I supposed to do, take it out on you? Jenna? Or Andromeda forbid, one of the Candidates?” I shouldn’t be shouting at Katie.
“Yes, the second, bigger one was completely stupid. I got hurt because of hubris and stupid mistakes. I fought the bigger monster because I was furious and wanted to vent some anger when it found me. That fight went surprisingly well.”
“You damaged your re-entry suit, Penny. How is that well?” Katie scoffs as she pours another drink for herself, continuing to be a poor host. But I walk over and pour myself one from her bottle
“I killed a tier 3 creature and didn’t lose any body parts. Seems like a win to me. Burned through about a million credits worth of gear though. I’m really sorry I worried you though. It certainly wasn’t my intention.” I sigh and massage my temples. “Based off what we saw near Summer Station, the weaker mobs were on the outskirts of an aether-dense area. I sought out a solitary blip to fight, and it was level 46. If that’s an indication of how tough the boss monsters are, they may be close to tier 4. That’s something we needed to know, and something we don’t have a detector for. So if we can stop yelling about how dumb I am, how can we make my plan safer?”
“Change your plan? Just saying.”
“Yes, but with suggestions this time?” I look at Katie with a look that I hope is as tired as I am.
“I have no good ones, love. Its just, every time you tell me you’re hurt I’m back in in the baths, holding pieces of you in the infused water, watching you grow back together. That and I think someone’s messing with me at the Manor and I’m extra irritated.”
“Messing with you? Katie, how long have you suspected?”
“I don’t know for sure, but I think maybe someone’s flooding the basement with extra aether, making me euphoric for an evening, and irritable for days after. I’ve been, broody and indulgent so it took me until recently to notice.”
I hate what she means when she says indulgent.
“Not to sound callous, hon, but are we waiting to have this discussion until we both address our unstable emotions, or should we have it now?” I really don’t know which I’d rather, but either way I’m nervous for what’s about to happen.
“No, we’ve been pretending nothing is wrong, or at least I’ve been leaning into bravado instead of trying to experience all of these . . . “ she gags a moment, “Feelings.”
I smirk at that. She did say that my death sparked more feels than she was accustomed. “Okay. I guess I’ll lead with the fact I don’t like how the number of your extra bedmates have gone from necessary to indulgent. I extra don’t like it when you have harem nights when I am around and willing to provide for you.”
“I hear that. I also hear that Tessa and Atropos have alluded to my jealousy as a reason. That part is true, and it hurts that Jenna doesn’t like me. It hurts a little extra because with two symbiote users, I probably wouldn’t need any other blood and bedmates. A small part of me thinks you like it this way: Having a private fling, someone you love to keep to yourself. The people I see, I don’t love them, Penny. It’s not what I need from them, and it’s not something I have to give.” She sounds sad and a little bitter. I hate that she feels this so I set my drink down and hug her.
“I’m sorry, Katie. I wish Mel hadn’t started me down this road. It’s not one I ever wanted to walk again. And to be honest, if it wasn’t for your thirst, I wouldn’t have entertained the idea again. I guess my question for you is: Do you realize that I love you both differently, and not more or less than the other?”
She shakes her head softly “You just seem so happy with her, and you rarely seem so lively with me.”
I pull back and hold her face in my hands, “Katie, do you remember how stupid and dopey I was with you at first?” She nods, “I fell impossibly in love with you in a week. Part of me merged with you then, and since you have both given me the brightest days and the darkest pits to live in. But the truth remains, I’d rather live in a musty pit for years with you than on a sunny field for ten minutes without you.”
“I love you too, wife. But this doesn’t solve my Jenna problem.”
“The solution is simple: Don’t be Melissa.”
Katie recoils like I slapped her. She even staggers back into an armchair and sits.
“Fuck.” She drains her cup and then drinks deep from the bottle. “How did I come that close to that?” Her thousand yard stare tells me that she was not prepared for such a revelation, even though Atropos was told about the corollary days ago.
I want to comfort her, but she needs something to do, and I could use a little snuggle, so I crawl into her lap sideways and stuff my face into her shoulders.
“Pain clouds our brains. Even one so analytical as your beautiful brain. My cavalier approach isn’t meant to be callous or uncaring, love, it’s self-preserving. I’m sorry if it has looked like I don’t worry about us, don’t think about you all of the time.”
“Does that mean you’re not trying to replace me?”
I snort, “Katie, love, life, and wife; you are a once in a lifetime intellect that I tricked into loving me. No practical number of dice rolls would show me this fortunate of a result again. You’re also stupid fucking pretty.”
She snorts, pinches my butt and bites me. Or nibbles until I give her permission and then she floods me with all of her emotions, pretty, ugly, green, radiant and black—all of them.
“That might be the first time that kind of bite has made me cry. All I can say, Kay, is that I’ll try to be better, for the three of us, okay?”
“And I’ll try not to hate you for making me feel all of this shit.”
I do my best to crawl into her soul and radiate love and warmth and acceptance.
***
The next morning, I wake up with Katie, have a short breakfast and discussion about the Empire with her and talk about our agendas. She’s here to monitor some shady gas scavenging from one of her mining companies and I have some meat processing to do. Katie doesn’t let me leave without sending a message to my armor person for a quote for a new set and a promise not to go wandering alone in the woods without my guard dog. Then I asked her not to call Jenna a dog anymore. She made no promises.
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When I said I should get back to Elysium, Katie delays me with a bite and a bang, but then I put a kibosh on more shenanigans.
When I get back to the Retreat, Jenna starts trying to drag the corpses out of the shuttle’s cargo hold. I snort, put a hand in her face and blip the bodies outside.
“If you want to go, I’ll be an hour or so getting these taken care of.”
“I’d rather help or watch and learn something than be idle.” I hug her side and relish in her sunbaked smell.
“Okay then, let us see what it takes to pierce their hides.” She walks up and tries to pierce it’s gut with a plain old titansteel knife with minimal effect. “Yikes, this will take forever with this. Got anything sharper?”
She looks at me, expectant. I nod and purse my lips to prevent myself from smiling wile I draw my plasma saber and my ruination rod. “Kibbles and Bits? Or do you want to skin it and steak it?” I gesture at both of my tools. She takes the saber. “Okay, send a spark to it like you would a shield, then push until you get the heat you want, but realize it will keep pulling mana to sustain it until you cut it off.”
Jenna brings the saber to life and takes a few test swings, appreciating the feel of the blade. When she tries to slice the first monster, it cuts better than the knife, but not well enough for her tastes. She makes the blade glow more brightly until it cuts to her satisfaction.
She talks me through what she’s doing and why and I get a general appreciation for skinning and butchery. I enjoyed the period when she tried to explain why you had to take out the guts and the difficult time she had finding the beast’s organs. It’s then I explain that aether beings above tier two can gradually rid their need for biology if they chose to develop that way.
“I really want to eat the big one.”
“It is nearly lunchtime. You want to find a pit and some wood for us to roast a haunch from each?”
“That sounds like the best idea I’ve heard all day. I’ll make a little spot for that and a place for me to sit in the lake to watch it.” I start to walk away before I think of the saber. “Hey babe, give me that knife, I’ll make it a plasma one if you like.”
She basically throws it at me. I’ll take it as a YES PLEASE! Instead of an act of violence. I chuckle at the enthusiasm and ridiculousness.
I pull up my menus and break out the “Empress Money” for a spitted fire pit, a covered picknick area and a utilities station for the shore. I link it to the workshop area underground so I can install a radio, a fridge and some fairy lights for the area. Finally, I put a chair on the shore as I sit with Jenna’s knife and shift my newly grown hand (tier 3 meds are a trip) into an engraving tool and get to work while waiting for my beefy bae to butcher the beasts.
Titian steel is hard to engrave. Luckily most of the engraving I have to do is in the handle and I am quite good at engraving at this point. Once I get to the point where I need to order new handle material, I teak a break and go see where my butcher lady is.
Jenna’s still butchering, but I see she’s set to chunks to the side—branded with their former levels. I smile and figure she deserves a kiss for her efforts. With a solid smack to her butt, I take the sectioned meat to the spit and start a roasting. Automated turning of course. I order some veggies and a tuber mash of some kind to complete the impromptu meal.
Twenty minutes later, Jenna tells me that she put all the parts into the shuttle and that she’d work on getting it into freezer size tomorrow. I snicker and recall the shuttle into its non-dimensional space.
“So I talked with Katie last night. You obviously came up. Katie is hurt by your rejection, and we talked through a bunch of feelings. I feel like this is going to trigger your anxiety, but you don’t have to go anywhere unless you want to.”
“So, she’s not pulling the wife card to kick me out after she said this was okay?” Ugh, Jenna, why can’t you look at me.
“No. I reminded her how I fell for each of you, and we agreed to pay attention to our outside stressors and let our feelings develop. Which, I want to ask you, what do you want from this, Us, Jenna?”
“Heh, well, I’m not sure how to feel about your wife wanting me to want her, but you give me hope for us? I want to be around you because you inspire an honest appreciation of the betterment of humanity. I love you because even with all of that power and strength, you’re still a real person with flaws and dreams. Last night, I hated the feeling that some conversation lightyears away might dictate my future. I thought I was about to lose the honor of being with this troubled, yet amazing person and it hurt so bad to see that your wife might want me gone. I’m not going to say something as stupid as I would give you anything, but what I have to give is yours. I’m never going to need sex the way you two do, but I’m sure you’ll be as understanding with my wants as you have been with my feelings.”
There’s gotta be sand in my eyes or something. “I promise to give you my support as often as I can, and to tease you mercilessly when I can get away with it. There are a dozen gooshy, heartfelt things I want to express, but the words pale in comparison to what we express falling asleep in eachother’s arms.”
I can see her blush from here and it makes my heart beat that little bit more, just for her. Which is a feat because my heart no longer needs to beat.
“You’re so embarrassing!”
“Andromeda, you are so adorable.” Ugh, my heart. “Before my heart explodes from cuteness, I’m going to check my messages.”
I will be taking advantage of the energy of your refinement to shift your core and meridians. Your next mutation should be an interesting one.
I groan escapes me as a churning grips my chest and abdomen. I see Jenna react, but I assure her it’s just level up pains from only getting improvements when I check them, as a punishment from the Matrix.
“Tessa tells me my next mutation is going to be a doozie. So, next level, I’ll be in a shit storm. I’m somehow out-leveling my skills. I’m really kind of afraid of how fast I’m leveling. Granted, without my ridiculous tech imbalance I would just be sitting with a bunch of magic waiting to be abused.”
“Penny, my AI is telling me that you shouldn’t be discussing this stuff.”
“Baby, I’m the Human Primus. I basically get the cheat codes. I advance faster, I keep my own tech and aether levels, and I get priority exchange delivery. There are some other things with that -- like my teleportation -- that you probably shouldn’t discuss with others.”
“Your secrets are safe with me Penny.” She gets up, walks over to my chair and kisses me softly. “Now I just need to convince you to let me keep the rest of you safe.”