Ch: 22.5 It’s Just Business

“Ahh, the master of the house deigns to grace us with his presence.” Marduk said while bowing so low he could smell his toes. Gary had popped into view abruptly and was already feeling cross. He’d been looking forward to seeing more of the beautiful girl who had just put him to sleep with her charms. The snarky godling was a serious comedown.

“Cram it Ducky, I fed you Becky, you have nothing to complain about.” Gary snapped. “If anything you should be glad to have a partner who doesn’t micromanage.”

“Partner? I am a God, mortal upstart-...” The pale godling continued to rant, enclosed in a crystal bubble from which no sound escaped.

“Sorry Thirp, is he a cunt like that when I’m not around?” Gary asked, while watching for the others to arrive.

“You seem to bring out the worst in each other, perhaps you should sit down and talk.” Thirp strummed, lost in thought. “You seem more antagonistic towards your own deity than to the outsiders seeking to infest your soul. Tell me about that.”

“Sure doctor Thirp, remember how I mentioned gods aren’t real where I’m from?” He asked, his voice artificially light. “Well they aren’t real, but we have them anyway and they all sucked. ‘Thou shalt hate these people, because they read from a different book of magic spells that don’t work.’ Screw those guys.”

“Ahhh, but Marduk is a god, he is real and he is Contracted to your soul. Why do the gods of your world matter?” Thirp asked, all annoying and reasonable. Gary glared at his sulking, preteen godling, still trapped in his timeout bubble.

“He treats me the way priests always treat those they see as beneath them. They see everyone as beneath them most of the time.” Marduk had turned his back to them, in order to sulk more effectively.

“It flips switches in my brain, I’m not proud of the way I react sometimes. Lately I feel way more aggressive and even violent, I never had that before this guy came along.”

Thirp had big dark compassionate eyes, it was easy to talk to him. A furry arachnid psychologist was probably the least absurd thing in his life lately.

“Gary, please go back upstairs to await your mates, I would like to speak with Marduk for a little while please.” Thirp sang. His soothing voice took Gary down a few notches.

When the door closed behind him, Gary let Marduk’s bubble evaporate, slowly.

“Wait… mates?” He asked himself, just as Becky and Shai appeared.

Gary resolved to pretend he had not heard that. “Hi girls, I kinda blew up at Ducky, again. Thirp is downstairs negotiating a truce, I’m in timeout.”

Becky flopped down on the bed beside Gary with a sigh. “It’s bad enough you keep getting in fights with my god, it really bugs me that you could probably kick his ass.” She dug a pointy elbow into his ribs.

“Could you stop, it’s giving me some insecurities, since I kick your ass on a regular basis.”

“Fair point. And since I am going to concede and try to do better, I would like to draw your attention to that fact.” Gary weaseled.

“Why would you need to point that out unless you already…” Thirp chose that blessed moment to softly tap on the door.

“A few more minutes if you please, friends, we are making progress.” The spider sang through the door.

“Sooo! That Esperanza, she’s a hot tamale right?” Gary crowed, hoping to derail the prior topic.

“Aye, though such talk be nae fer Becky tae hear.” Shai warned.

“Right.” Becky scoffed. “I’ve been to Otho’s sculpture garden. I read that book you have lying around too… weirdo.”

“Book?” Shai asked. “Did ye stumble on summat dark here in Gary’s festering cesspit o smut?” She skewered him with an eye. “Ye can speak freely Becky, were it the tentacles?”

“You mean the box marked hentai? That's weird shit, no this is in the real world, it was on the bookshelf, the title was ‘An Affair Of Monsters’ super gross. And yeah, the tentacles too.”

Gary was crouching in the corner hugging his knees and talking to himself while twitching in spastic, jerky, fits.

“First the porno book, then the kinksword, all the bathing… well, I quite like that, but all the bathing! Now it's the book again… the kinksword must be appearing again soon!”

He began rocking back and forth, swaying to a beat only he could hear and whispering.

“Of course now it all makes sense… it’s the only secret I have! I have to show it to them, they have to see!”

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“Gary, ye do scare us boy, come about and speak tae us.” Shai said firmly. “Ye need nae fear aught wi us.”

Slowly he turned, looking overwrought and distressed. One eye had a distinct twitch and his lips kept moving, even when he was silent. Between eyeblinks his weapon appeared in his hand, in its short spear form. Becky jumped a little and may have let out a small squeak.

“I only have one secret left, you guys always ask, ‘your spear can be all these things ‘why not a sword' and I always say it can’t. That is a lie” He threw his weapon to the floor with a clang.

“See? There, see my shame? My kinksword? It was Zygnos… he did this, another of his jokes…”

“What is the matter? T’is a sword in the tradition o my people, we do always… ohh, now I do see it.” She giggled. “An ye stab sumat wi that they hae been well penetrated indeed.”

Becky was turning her head to the left and right trying to… “Ahh! I'm gonna get Hannah to make a scabbard for that, it should look like pants. Please put some pants on that.”

“You see? This is my life, four months ago I was a homeless cripple. Now I’ve got a golden pecker a yard long and a spider thinks you are both my mates… and that our children will burst from my chest at some point.” He paced the room wildly for a moment before falling back onto the ridiculous bed.

“Maybe Esperanza was the final straw and now I have gone completely mad.” He looked up at them wild eyed and confused.

“Come on, She’s sexy and confident, maybe a bit too aggressive, but you look ok and don’t stink. With gifts like yours…”

Shai was Shaking her head emphatically and gripping Becky’s shoulder. She steered the smaller woman to the door gently and whispered, “We shall speak on this soon.” before closing the door.

Gary and Shai never came down that night. When Becky woke, curled up with Tawny, she crept upstairs to join the pair and drifted off into natural sleep with them.

Gary woke early, red eyed and stiff from unpacking way too much emotional baggage. When he realized he was trapped under skinny little Becky, he began to giggle like a fool.

He spent two quiet hours down in his workshop thinking and getting some stuff right in his head.

In the bath he began to feel more human. Later, near first bell, Shai staggered down. Shortly after, Ivy and Tallum stumbled from their chamber. Walking stiffly, they headed for the bath with single minded determination.

Esperanza came prancing out after, seemingly at peace with all creation and happy as a lark in spring.

“Good morning darlings! This one enjoyed your hospitality immensely! Falco my dear! Stop flirting, you are shameless!”

She settled between Gary and Shai, using her rump to inveigle herself between them, resting a hand on each one's thigh under the water.

“Opportunities can be missed, but they can come around again… Esperanza will be plying these waters.” She trailed her hands up their thighs, grazing certain tender locales, before draping her arms around them. Fortunately she was too short to reach much, she didn’t stop trying though.

Gary was starting to feel more comfortable with the sensual charming young woman, He looked over her head and Shai was relaxing into her arms as well.

“Mistress Esperanza,” Tawny’s golden voice cut the air, shaking them from a mellow fog. “I understand your… condition, but Gary and Shai are a special case and are in my care.” She smiled down at them tenderly.

“You may find them irresistible, but I think you are perhaps too compatible with our little group.” She waved her hand, as though to clear swarming insects.

“The magic is thicker than marsh flies in here!”

Ivy and Tallum were nearly unconscious, floating around looking happy and exhausted. Only Liam, Tawny and the three male members of Esperanza’s crew seemed immune to the effect. “Come on you three, Dante, Yuzef, and Marc, was it? Come help get them apart.”

“OverJoyed.” Yuzef said solemnly, as though pronouncing a diagnosis while hauling Shai away from his leader.

“These two, love hangovers, they will be fine.” Marc announced, equally calm from over by Tallum and Ivy.

“This one is not reacting well. Should I throw him in the river?” Dante asked, holding wet, naked Gary and looking uncomfortable.

The boy was limp as a dishrag… mostly. Like ninety eight percent, that last two percent was working overtime.

“Just keep those three separate until everyone is dressed and ready for the day, a late breakfast will be lovely!” Tawny took control and had Liam preparing a simple meal, while the others gathered in the common room.

Dante escorted a still radiant, but now slightly subdued Esperanza into the common room, leaving the last two floating in the pool alone. Tallum closed the bathing room door with finality and sat down with Ivy to eat.

“Where is Becky?” Liam asked, suddenly alarmed.

As the group began to stir, a voice floated in through the window.

“I’m in the stable you goons, it's gross in there.” Her beaded braids clicked softly as she stuck her head in through the window. “My first gift started showing up yesterday, aura sense… you guys are disgusting.” She looked around the room.

“Gary and Shai? Ohh… Fix me a plate Liam, I’m eating outside.”

“As you see mistress Esperanza, your gifts and those of my companions are slightly incendiary when combined.” She set her golden stare on the other woman. “Please bear in mind that of our group, none possess a full suite of Contracts.”

Esperanza’s eyes widened in surprise. “Really?” She stood and assumed a kneeling position on the floor in front of Tawny and Liam. “This one has shamed her clan…” Her three crewmates joined her on the floor in silence.

“You meant no harm, there is no shame in this, please do keep it on a leash for now please.” Tawny said calmly. “Some of us are magically sensitive, others are particularly vulnerable to your charms.”

The river folk rose slowly and bowed as one. “Your group’s gifts synergized so well, it was as though all this…” She waved a slender arm to encompass the home and garden. “came from just one person.”

The Bathers chuckled awkwardly while Tawny let Liam answer. “That would be madness. No, we are a close knit family that is all. I am certain that Gary and Shai will hold no ill feelings once they are… recovered.”

Sunrise became full morning, before the trade boat Esperanza got underway. Becky pushed a wooden crate into Esperanza’s hands as the gangway was being pulled free. “Gary and Shai wanted you to have these as a gift.” She said, before ducking away.

With his fierce puma helm on his hip, Liam cut a dashing and warlike figure in the cool winter morning. “We will look forward to the next time our paths cross.” He called across the water to the departing boat.

Gary and Shai did not emerge until a half hour after that, still looking peaky and befuddled. Tawny did her best to explain in the common room.

“As Shai surmised, Esperanza most likely has multiple Contracts with Joy and a connection to the god of Beasts and Water. Since so many of us are touched by Joy, things got a bit out of hand. Once they were inside the house…” She shrugged.

“It was only a matter of time before Gary used his gift on her and that was that.”

She stood in front of the furiously blushing pair. “If and when you encounter her again, exercise caution… or don’t.” She smiled a little wickedly. “Your sexual repression is not healthy Gary, I worry that you are ill prepared for life outside Wheatford.”

Tawny pointed to Ivy and Tallum, still huddled together whispering and giggling. “Those two are fine, you would have fared no worse.”

“I notice you didn’t melt into her cuddle puddle, why am I supposed to just go with it?” He asked, sounding genuinely miffed.

“I would call you a fool, but that is old news. You are stuffed with magic, that is why it spills out into everything you do. You can express that excess magic in any number of ways, but sex is among the healthiest and least likely to cause… complications.”

Gary stared blankly at Tawny for a while. “Really?” He finally asked. “No complications?”

Tawny looked shifty. “I will discuss matters with you in private later. Shai should be there too, but it is your choice.” She whispered.

“I’m done with this conversation. Let's get this moving, we have a mysterious entity to locate, identify and kill… and eat probably, is it weird that I’m hungry again?” Gary grumbled.

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