As anticipated, I was dragged along to meet with the head priest. I got to stand off to one side of a large, and mostly empty, hall along with Wendy and Toadwart. I noticed that the both of them got to stay in their usual armor while I was sporting a pink set of pajamas. Okay, Lena. Fine. Let’s see if this has any effect on your aquatic gear.

Lena knelt on a fancy pillow at a short table for one as attendants brought her some tea and side dishes. Her table was on one side of the hall while the priest was at a larger table at the far side of the hall. Some other importantly dressed fish people were seated at smaller tables near him. Across the hall from Lena sat a simian dressed in overlapping layers of greens and tans. The style of clothing was very form fitting and gave the impression of a bud with overlapping leaves waiting to blossom. The monkey person looked youthful and agile, though I couldn’t tell the person’s gender at a glance. They did have long ear tips though, which I found interesting. Other than the animal parts, they could have fit the fantasy ideal of a “forest elf”.

On the same side as the monkey elf sat a middle aged man with well tanned skin and yellow eyes. He wore a lot of flowing fabrics in a range of pastels and a tourbin with the tips of long cat ears poking out. A thin, long, tan, and black tail twitched behind him. His face didn’t look nervous but I assumed he was from the tail movements, or maybe agitated.

Beyond the cat guy sat a small lizard-ish person. I say “lizard-ish” but she might have been more like a gecko. She had huge black eyes and a wide mouth on an otherwise small head. Her bright yellow skin looked smooth and shiny rather than scaley. The hint of a white floral pattern on her shoulders and upper back peaked out from the folds of the off-shoulder kimono-style dress she wore.

It was hard to hear the priest. He mumbled while sounding like he was also gargling. He was also the oldest looking fish I’d ever seen. His catfish whiskers hung down to a large belly and folds of skin prevented me from being able to actually see his eyes.

He mumbled something and Lena and the other dignitaries raised cups of something and toasted. Before they could drink, he’d start mumbling something else and they would hold their cups back up. After the fourth false start he drank his own cup without warning, leaving the rest to hurriedly drink from theirs.

They started talking about things but it was all completely over my head and completely boring. So instead, I started running simulations based on the level one of “Chongjibo zhi quan” that I’d gained. I wondered what it meant and found it interesting that it hadn’t gotten translated like most stuff seemed to. As expected, level one was super basic and probably along the lines of what got taught to kids for their white belts.

“Prime. What are you doing? You keep twitching and making a fist,” Wendy asked, concerned.

“Oh, don’t mind me. Just mentally practicing with a fighting style I picked up,” I answered.

“Mentally? How could that possibly be effective?” Toadwart asked.

“It’s not like I need to train my body or build muscle memory. Kick. Punch. It’s all in the mind,” I replied.

Prime.Rom:// Daddy.... No one will ever get that reference...

Prime:// Oh shush, who cares? You got it.

Prime.Rom:// ...Can I... Help you?

Prime.Ram:// oh, she gets it. Rommy, it’s so rare of you to play reference tag with us. I’m so proud.

Prime.Rom:// [#>__<#]

“So where are the others? How did they get out of this honor?” I asked, feeling a bit jealous.

“I don’t know about your Auto pal, but I’ve given Dash, Roy, and Baika the afternoon off since they’ll be taking night watch duties,” Wendy answered.

“Is that even necessary? It’s not like the Princess or I ever sleep.”

“Doesn’t matter. As long as she’s royalty, she gets a guard at all times,” the Captain answered as if addressing a child.

“How annoying. Glad I don’t require guards,” I complained.

“You say that now, but I heard there’s a peerage in your future,” Wendy said with a smirk.

“I have yet to agree to that,” I huffed.

“I strongly advise against letting her Highness hear that,” Toadwart advised.

“Mleh,” I mlehed. “She’s a nice girl and I like her well enough but what would be the point of such a union beyond putting a political shackle around my neck? It’s not like I can provide heirs...”

“Don’t you already have a pair of daughters? And I believe there are a handful of others that regard you as their father,” the lieutenant asked, giving me a squinty eyed side glance.

“That’s hardly the same thing and you know it,” I grumbled, growing more annoyed at the direction things were headed.

“I think the point he’s making is that you can produce an heir... of sorts... you would just be creating them in a much more... mechanical way than the typical method,” Wendy tried.

“And where, exactly, would her Highness be involved in that process?” I asked.

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“Ah. Right. I hadn’t worked out that bit,” Wendy admitted, embarrassed. “Maybe her Highness could help in the design process? Or help building it?”

“She’s not an engineer or an artificer. Not exactly an even division of labor there,” I reminded.

“I can’t exactly say that the gob that knocked my mum up shared much of the division of labor in my construction,” Toadwart joked.

“Fair,” I admitted.

I hated to admit it, but my mind started wandering around thinking about merging code bases between donor sources. Personality matrices could be simplified and a randomizer could mix and match values between the two in order to spin up a new AI routine that was a randomized blend of the two. The result would be an entirely artificial and soulless being though like my subRoutines.

My MainFrame subRoutine was overlaid as a personality matrix on top of the merger of Jhiax and his dragon’s souls... Could the generated personality matrix be overlaid on top of a donor soul? But where would the soul come from? It would be pretty cruel to capture dead souls and force them to be your child and if you were converting a child it would be cruel to force a new personality onto them.

New souls had to come from somewhere and enter things that are getting ready to be born... Could I build some sort of receiver that would accept new souls coming to this world and inject them into a core with the merged personality matrix? An Automata couple could order a child at their local upgrade shop and have their code scanned. Then wait until we get a hit with a new soul and have their new child delivered by post...

The thought of trying to write a program to handle a “randomized” code merger of this scale made my head hurt so I shoved the concepts off stage. The idea of creating brand new Automata without having to murder anyone currently alive appealed to me though and would let us continue as a proper species. The philosophical ramifications of forcing new souls to become Automata without their consent weighed on me for a bit but were easily dismissed when I considered that no one was born an elf or a goblin with prior consent, right? Or maybe they were. I’d have to ask Beam if I ever saw him again.

Wendy and Toadwart had both given up on trying to engage me in conversation, which was just as well. The meeting looked like it was wrapping up as Lena had gotten up from her tiny table and was chatting with the gecko girl. The simian and the cat guy looked eager to leave though and made their exits. The priests were already gone. Given that I could control multiple proxies, you’d think I could handle paying attention to what was going on around me while also thinking deeply about things, but you’d be wrong.

Lena looked my way and gave me a tug of her head as if to pull me closer. Dutifully, I obeyed and joined her, unsure of what, exactly, she was going to demand of me.

“Chari, this is my betrothed, Prime. Prime, this is Charitomeni Savra, first princess and delegate of Irrathera. We would play together whenever our fathers would meet for various conferences,” Lena said, introducing us.

“An orcan child? Um... nice to meet you little one. Are you having a good time with Auntie Lena? I guess you will have to wait quite a while until you can be wed huh Lena? Oh, no offense intended, Prime. I am certain that such a large age difference will hardly be noticeable at some point,” Princess Charitomeni said, smiling in a way that didn’t seem to reach her eyes.

“Chari! It’s fine, this is a disguise. Prime, dear, please show her your true self. I’m sure that her Highness will be captivated by your lovely black scales,” Lena said, shooting me a decidedly meaningful look.

I suppressed a snicker and triggered [Cloak(‘toothless’)] mentally. The smooth gray and white dolphin skin glitched and pixelated, reforming into my dragon scale skin. I cautiously took a glance behind me to confirm that the prosthetic tail was also cloaked properly given that this was my first time attempting the skin with the accessory.

“Your Highness. My name is Prime Cyberman, master artificer and dragon slayer of the Fangwell Empire,” I said, giving a bow with flourish.

“Cyberman? Yes, Cyberman. Of the Maulian Cyberman,” Lena added quickly.

“Oh. Oh my, yes well met. Well met, indeed. A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Lord Cyberman,” the Irratheran Princess said with considerably more interest.

“Please, just call me Prime. I prefer not to stand on ceremony. I’m afraid that I’m traveling incognito so I do hope that you will keep our little secret,” I said, giving her a slight wink and shifting back to the orcan skin.

“Of course Sir Prime. A little secret just for us,” she said, licking one of her eyes.

Was that a gecko wink?

“Do not go getting any silly ideas Chari. He belongs to me and I shall be the first wife in all things,” Lena asserted, pulling me in possessively.

“Well... as the first princess, I do outrank you my dear Lena,” Chari said slyly.

“La la la. I can not hear you! What’s that Prime? You wanted to see the market? Very well. We do have the afternoon free. Come along. So sorry Chari, but we have things to do. My beloved does so love to dote on me in the shops you see,” Lena said, grabbing my hand and dragging me bodily for the exit.

I chanced a glance back to see Chari cross her arms and give me a little “toodles” wave.

“Maybe the dragon skin cloak wasn’t a great idea, perhaps we should have gone with the snake skin cloak,” I said, voicing my concern once we were out of earshot.

“I could not very well have her thinking that I was going to be marrying a small child,” she said defensively. “I did not even know that you had a snake skin cloak, though I am curious about it.”

“Uh, yeah. Also a questionable ape skin and a new crab shell one that I haven’t tested. So... these orcans... what do the adults look like?” I asked, curious.

“Oh they are quite large. Easily a head or so above Cyclone and twice as wide,” she answered.

“Ah. So I look like a toddler then,” I lamented.

“Something like that, yes,” she said, looking slightly embarrassed.

“Well crumbs. Too late now, I guess since I told Princess Charitomeni that I had to travel in disguise,” I grumbled.

We arrived back at the residence so that Lena could get changed into her fourth outfit of the day. I was decidedly not wearing the pink outfit any longer than I had to. Priss had found me some of the local pants in black with gray wraps so I changed into them along with my rinox leather armor and green travel cloak.

Lena came out of her room wearing a relatively simple black dress with silver trim in the local style. The top was pulled down to show her upper shoulders and collarbone while the overlapping front panels were held by a pink sash. Her red toes peaked out from the bottom of the dress and I could see she was wearing sandals of some sort. I wondered if she was running the full body [Cloak] or just the top and toes but decided that it would be healthier to not ask.

“You look great,” I said, praising the look.

“Yes,” she agreed. “It is cute, is it not? But what should we do about you? I would truly rather not have people think that I am going on a date with a young child. Let me see the snake skin cloak.”

“[Cloak(‘python patrol’)]”, I said, triggering the change.

The orcan skin dissolved away and was replaced with shimmering scales of pearl, copper, and black in a diamond back pattern. The solid black dolphin eyes gave way to the gold and red slitted eyes of a desert predator. I held my arms out and did a little turn for her.

“You look familiar. Why do you look familiar?” she asked.

“I modeled the scale pattern off of my friend Naji,” I answered.

“That naga woman in Urd?” she asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow.

“Yes?”

“Rejected. I will not have you wearing the scales of another woman,” she stated, waiving away the skin. “Just use the black one. We will think of something later if it comes up.”

I shrugged, switched skins and followed after her as she headed out.

“Come along my dear husband, there is shopping to be done. If we are to explore this abyss then I will be needing a new swimsuit, don’t you agree?” she said, giving me a wink that was likely intended to be sultry.

“I thought you were terrified of the water,” I teased.

“I am. But I’m far more afraid of being where you aren’t,” she answered, turning slightly pink and looking away.

“Aww, you’re so adorable when you’re embarrassed,” I said, smugly.

“You--” she sputtered and quickly turned completely away, covering her face with her hands.

I couldn’t see her face, but her red ears seemed to glow and I could nearly see steam coming off of her head. Okay. We were even for the pink pajamas.