Kyron and I stop flying and start hovering once we're close to the Dungeon's camp. Close enough that we can see that both the bathhouse I constructed and the temporary house I'd built for us were demolished. Both are just piles of rubble at the moment.
My robe begins flapping in the conjured wind as I start flying closer, intent on asking Meredith what happened. I doubt she'd have authorized it, which means that it was probably her son or husband who did that to my creations. Neither of whom are either of the people currently talking with her.
One is a man who appears to be in his late fifties, but I suspect him to be a fair bit older than that. Even from here, I can sense he's someone who's built up some power, and he's dressed in the outfit of an earth-affinity swordsman. Reading the flows, I determine that he started off like me – without a Class. However, I'm going to estimate that he's currently a Moderate-Tier person who's nearing Level 200. Earth affinity for primary, water for second.
Before it becomes obvious I'm reading him that way, I stop. He's currently looking very uncomfortable due to the third person there. Floating beside Meredith and the man is a spirit. As with most who can take on humanoid form, she's somewhere between transparent and translucent and appears to be in her late teens to early twenties.
The spirit's hair is a dark, earthy brown with bluish-grey streaks in it and flows about her as if suspended in water, though more together than spread out like a normal person's hair would be. Her eyes are the grey of the stones of some of the shores of the lake and sparkle with her amusement. Her skin is fair and flawless, and she has an ample pair of boobs, which the elder swordsman is currently trying to avoid staring at.
A series of bracelets and anklets are around her ankles and wrists, some of them made of brown stone, some made of grey. Magic crystals of water and earth are set into the bracelets, five in each. A grey earring hangs from each of her ears, a bluish-green crystal shaped like a teardrop hanging from each. Floating above her head is a stone halo with three ribbons of water braiding their way around it.
She's currently floating on her right side, propping her head up with her right hand while her left rests on her left leg, relaxed. The moment she spots us soaring in, however, she shifts, and not just to a standing position with a slight lean back.
Her hair shortens as her earrings shift to grey studs with water magic crystals set into them, half of the bracelets and anklets vanish as those ample boobs shrink down and the spirit's face turns more twink than feminine. Their limbs shift change shape a little as well as genitals shift, becoming a large dick and a decent pair of testicles. His stomach is lean but not defined, more like mine than Kyron's or a normal mage's.
Streams of water begin to flow around him, each only half an inch in thickness. They flow in a ribbon-like form, constantly shifting like waves on a shore.
"Hi, Caleb!" He waves to us as Meredith and the man stare at the spirit, both clearly surprised by them suddenly shifting to a male form. "You're back!"
"Hello, Enziakos!" I wave to him as Kyron and I touch down. "You're a fair bit away from your lake, aren't you?"
Enziakos is the fourth-most powerful spirit I've ever met, rating above even Volzaminat. Before Kyron and I sacrificed ourselves to kill the Great Demon King, the spirit was also local to an ocean shore a few hundred miles away.
"I moved to this one about five hundred years ago," he slams himself into me in a hug. "There wasn't a proper high spirit here, so I was able to bind myself to it without an issue. Was taking a nap for the last two centuries. Ovrodonos woke me up the other day to let me know you were resurrected. I didn't believe him at first, but then I noticed that all of the lesser spirits were abuzz the same way they get when you're around."
"How-what just happened?" The man asks.
"Hello!" I greet him. "I'm Caleb, and this is my husband, Kyron. How's it going, Meredith?"
"She just changed into a he," Meredith is still confused. "What just happened?"
"Spirits don't have a defined sex," I explain as Enziakos shifts around so that he's hugging me from behind (though still floating). "So they just pick whatever form is most appealing to the person they're talking with."
Most spirits are also fun-loving ones like Boraniavos, even among the older spirits.
"We all go into a male form for Caleb," Enziakos lets her know. "Because Caleb is the most supreme mortal around. He deserves getting to observe something he finds sexy, especially after taking out the Great Demon King."
"What about me?" Kyron asks.
"You find us sexy, too," Enziakos grins at him. "But Caleb's more important!"
"Is that why you're still hugging him, but haven't even greeted me yet?" Kyron asks.
"Here you go!" Enziakos lets go of me and slams himself into Kyron to give him a hug.
"Hello, Meredith," I dip my head to her. "How are you?"
"Very confused at the moment," she says. "Spirits don't just have an animal and a human form, they can even switch between sexes?"
"Yes," I nod. "Think of their body like clay for them to mold as they please. The form you see is normally dictated by first their ability to shape their body, second their preference, and third what the 'majority appeal' is. Weaker high spirits can't take on humanoid forms because they aren't powerful enough. What they consider the majority appeal depends on not the majority of people there, but a weighted preference. For example, you might have ten men in an area and only one woman, and all ten men are into women while the women is into men, but the spirit takes on a male form. It might be because each of the ten men might have a weight of one, while the woman has a weight of fifteen."
"When they aren't doing it based on what would be most appealing," Kyron says. "But are still taking human form, they're usually male. This goes for when there's a tie or a close weighting. This is because it was the essence of a male being – the gods – that turned them from just spirits into higher spirits, and so they have a natural inclination towards it."
"But they're still without sex," I say.
"And you have a high weighting?" Meredith asks.
"He has an infinite weighting!" Ezniakos corrects. "No number of people can counter it!"
"Why an infinite one?" Meredith asks.
"Because he's Caleb!"
"Spirits have always liked me," I inform her as I hold up my right hand, and a handful of bluish-green motes and brownish-grey motes begin to glow above it. "Ever since I was little. Even before I did something that earned me a high viewing from them. And before you wonder why, they were the same way with my parents."
That's another reason why I was surprised Volzaminat rejected my apology and was still so hostile to me. Very few spirits can hold a grudge against me because of how much they're naturally-inclined to like me. Those that don't are usually corrupted like the one I killed, but they're an extreme exception.
We're definitely good now, though. Before Kyron and I left after our post-Dungeon make-out session earlier, Volzaminat let me know we didn't need to finish the rest of his requirements. I'll probably still get him more lava cores, anyway, because he's pretty nice when he's not being angry and holding a grudge.
"But Caleb rates even higher than his father," Enziakos moves through Kyron to float in front of and face Meredith. "Because he's Caleb!"
"Alright," Meredith smiles, then indicates the man. "This is Adrian, my husband's father. He has come out of retirement to take over this camp as it develops into a town, due to the inability of my husband and my son to properly manage things."
"I take it this has something to do with the reason the structures I built are in rubble?" I ask.
"My husband demolished them," she informs me. "Was not too pleased about how things had gone, did not believe your identities, and decided to demolish your creations."
There was probably more to it than that, but it's apparently gotten them removed.
"Well," I stretch. "We ended up not going through with our plans. Sort of. We went and dealt with the frauds, reunited with Boraniavos, then started to travel to Rezovekk's lair, but stopped to say hello to Volzaminat and ended up running one of his Dungeons."
"Volzaminat hated you, last I spoke with him," Enziakos floats back behind me and starts messing with my hair. "Something about you being a jerk to him when you were a kid."
"It was partly his own fault," I snort. "And I went there to apologize. He's happy with me now. Don't worry about the bathhouse, Meredith. I'm going to construct a temporary shelter for Kyron and me today, then a more long-term one tomorrow and the day after. The day after that, I'll build a new bathhouse. Since we aren't as pressed for time, I can take a couple of days for that. Make it of a better quality, more resilient, and even give it some decorations."
"Model it on wolves!" Enziakos explodes into motes that fly in front of me, quickly reassembling into a large wolf with brownish-grey fur streaked through with bluish-grey coloring. Water flows around his ankles and tail, his eyes still the same bluish-grey as before. "Like this stylish buddy!"
The spirit starts striking poses, and I start flicking shots of compressed air at him just for fun. In response, Enziakos starts running around, sometimes chasing the shots of compressed air, sometimes trying to swat them out of the air.
We play for a few minutes before Kyron taps me on the shoulder to get my attention.
"Yes?" I look at him.
In response to the interruption, Enziakos breathes water at my husband, who deflects it with a simple [Water Barrier].
"Do you want food?" Kyron asks. "We had a pretty busy day so far, and I know you're going to be working on the temp shelter once you're done playing with him."
"I was thinking," I say. "That if I use Novabodos, I could build the full house today. I can use the rubble from the old one and the bathhouse to do it."
"Isn't working enchanted stone difficult?" Meredith asks.
"Did you say Novabodos?" Adrian asks.
"Yes, why?"
"You know of it?" Meredith asks.
"Novabodos is one of the Seven Legends," Adrian says. "It was the Sage of Fire's ultimate staff, the magic item which unleashed the spell that wiped out the demon army, leaving only the Great Demon King behind. It was thought lost after the Sage of Fire and Saint of Frost sacrificed themselves to kill the Great Demon King. I know you two are confirmed as such by various beings such as Ovrodonos and Enziakos, but… you were already able to locate it? Do you have some sort of sense for the Legends?"
"No," I answer. "Boraniavos found it at some point and decided it was best not in the hands of mortals, so hid it in his base. There were some frauds at the Shrine of the Frozen Flame, and that happens to be his home. While we were there, he gave it to me."
"What are the Seven Legends?" Kyron and I ask at the same time.
"The seven most powerful magic weapons ever known," Enziakos answers. "Caleb's created six of them, and the seventh is Kirvielnex."
The sword of the Golden Knight.
"Novabodos and Durazvokir, I know for sure are there," I say. "What are the other four that I made?"
"The one that's hidden in the Shrine of Calamity," Enziakos reverts back to his human form. "Someone may have leaked about its existence and level of power, but not what it does. A few of us know and might not have wanted one of your great creations to be forgotten. All that we revealed about it was that it is sealed in the Shrine of Calamity, protected by one of the Elder Spirits. Then there's the Staff of the Eternal Sun, the Spear of Hidden Winds, and the Sword of the Final Mountain."
"Those are their titles, not their names," I complain. "Do you have any idea how much effort it takes me to figure out which word from that language to use as the base for it?"
"Do you have any idea how hard it is to pronounce them?" The spirit raises an eyebrow, and all of his streams of water lift up as if eyebrows, too. "Especially in short succession?"
"Coward."
"I'll show you a coward!" Enziakos tackles me, using his water streams to help him in wrestling with me.
The spirit manages to get me to the ground, but he never really learned wrestling and he's not really any stronger than I am. That makes this a little bit more in my favor, so I'm not opposed to him using his streams to help.
"Caleb," Kyron says as the spirit attempts to get out of the headlock I've put him in, his water streams attempting to move my arms and pull me away. "Do you want food?"
If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
"Yes, please!"
Kyron brings me some food, and I take a seat at the main fire pit to eat it, Ezniakos floating in a cross-legged sitting position to my left while my husband sits on my left. The provided meal is some sort of rabbit meat served with roasted veggies and a roll. Instead of drinking the ale served, I drink some of the water that Enziakos conjures for me.
"Do you mind if I ask what your plans are?" Adrian asks as Kyron and I eat. "From what Meredith has told me, the two of you come and go as you please. Not a bad thing, mind you, but it will make it hard to plan some things."
"We're mostly just using this area as a base for now," Kyron tells him. "It's conveniently located about the center of the places we'll be going for now. In a month or two, we'll probably move on to somewhere else, unless Caleb starts getting more ideas in his head that result in this camp remaining a good place to come back to between things."
"Ideas?" Adrian asks.
"Such as hearing information," Kyron says. "That leads to us going somewhere. For example, visiting Nozvinel, going to the Shrine of the Eternal Flame, Rezovekk's lair, the Shrine of Forgotten Hopes, the location of where a mysterious ship appeared a thousand years ago-"
"The Haunted Ship?" Tasha joins us. "So it really is a thousand years old?"
"It's still around?" I ask.
"Yes," she nods. "Despite being just a ship, it's over a thousand years old and shows no sign of decay. Whatever enchantments were woven into it, they last even to this day, shielding it from damage and the weather. While it usually remains in its cove, the ship sometimes sails out, either remaining in the small inlet or sailing into the ocean. It never goes too far from its inlet, and typically returns within a day, nestling back into the sheltered cove that's its home.
"The nearby town," she continues. "Warns travelers away from it. Any who board it report feelings of being observed the entire time, while those who attempt to steal it simply disappear. Rumors had it that the ship appeared thousand years ago, but no one was entirely certain."
"You've been on it, haven't you?" I ask.
"Yes," she nods. "How could you tell?"
"Your eyes lit up while talking about it," I answer. "The sign of someone with an interest in it, and the way you mentioned the feeling of observation, your tone and body language suggested actual experience. So you're interested in the ship?"
"Yes," she nods. "I spent a full six months trying to study it, but found nothing. Whoever enchanted it was like you – they knew how to completely conceal the enchantments. The more time I spent on the ship, the more eerie it felt, as if something was warning me to leave it. I only went on the ship a few times, for a few hours at most each time. We had a full research team, and we were unable to uncover anything not already known."
"Why'd you stop?" Kyron asks. "You seem like someone with the spirit of a proper mage – someone who will research things until they've exhausted all avenues. Yet you stopped after only six months?"
"Something about that ship," she pulls her cloak tighter around her, as if the already-chilly air just turned colder. "It was unsettling. There was nothing new we could glean without studying the ship itself, and it felt like the ship itself did not want us there."
"Not the ship," Enziakos speaks up, reminding the others that he's here and currently weaving very tiny streams of water through some of the flames, though he's not touching his water to the logs so that the fire doesn't get put out. "The spirit bound into the ship."
"The… what?" I ask. "There's a spirit bound into the ship? How is that possible? Now that I think about it, Volzaminat mentioned to us that there was a mage who caused him to be moved from the eastern continents to here, bound to the volcano. I wanted to know more, but the very thought of it made him grumpy so I dropped it."
"Elder Spirits can choose what we're bound to on a whim," Enziakos explains. "Sort of like how I moved from a rocky shore on the eastern ocean to here. The first great mage figured out how to do that and tricked Volzaminat into moving to this continent, then bound him to the volcano. While Volzaminat is about powerful enough to possess the ability to choose where he's bound on a whim… it's been a few thousand years and he's not sure of a good way to get back to his old volcano."
"Even if he did," I say. "He'd have to deal with whatever other spirit might be there, and spirits don't usually war between each other."
"Indeed," Enziakos says. "Though he'd no doubt have seniority and be the lead spirit, sort of like how I am here, since there's no other spirits as old as I am in this area. Mostly, it's just that he's still grumpy over the whole thing. He did manage to break the artificial binding, though."
Volzaminat being artificially-bound to the volcano definitely explains his extra hatred of me. I didn't just remind him of someone who tricked him into moving home, I reminded him of someone who forced him into a new home.
"And the ship's spirit bound himself into it?"
"I don't know," Enziakos shrugs, and all of his streams of water do the same. "No one's ever actually seen him, but we know he's there. As far as we could tell, he stays in mote form and blends in with the ambient spirits. Even I can't discern the difference, and I'm an Elder Spirit. When he needs to deal with people who are bothering him too much, that spirit has ambient spirits take care of it."
"So it may not be a ship from the eastern continents," I say. "But one that was constructed by that great mage, who then bound a spirit into it. It must have been hidden somewhere for awhile, maybe even sleeping."
"And once he woke up," Kyron says. "He found a new home. There must be something special about that cove."
"I'm changing up our plan a little," I tell Kyron. "After building the new house and bathhouse, we'll go investigate. Spirits like me, so I can probably talk him into revealing himself. Sorry, Ky, but you might have to hide yourself."
"If it helps sate your curiosity about something," Kyron tells me. "I have no issue with staying away for a bit. That's one of the reasons we often separated for a week or two once we started traveling together, you know."
"You mean once you stopped stalking me."
"I-never mind," he chuckles. "So that's our next task, then?"
"No," I say. "Rebuilding the stuff is. After that will be going down to the ship to see if we can find out the spirit's deal. Hey, Enzi – do you at least know its elemental affinities?"
"No, sorry," the spirit answers. "He really is good at concealing himself. Since he's bound to a ship, I figured he might be a water or air spirit, maybe both, but none of my attempts at bribing him out based on that worked."
"Are you certain it's a spirit?" I ask.
"Yes," he answers. "There are some small signs that point to it. Either that, or the ship was designed with some sort of intelligence in it."
Some sort of… intelligence? Could it be that the ship is actually magitech, then? If it has a system similar to the sentries Kyron and I faced in the previous Dungeon, then that would explain why people felt like they were under observation. The ship may have actually been watching them. Those who attempt to hijack it may trigger a defense measure, maybe even magitech monsters that normally remain hidden.
If sentries can be mistaken for just orbs, then it's possible that other magitech monsters might be mistaken for other objects while in an inert mode.
Though if the ship is a magitech ship… then its very existence likely defies the standard for this world. Something would have to be at play to keep the universe from removing it. This world isn't supposed to have magitech, so anything more than something small is definitely in defiance.
I'm basing this assumption on the fact that we don't have magitech. Even my father never invented any, and I'm sure he would've figured it out if the world was allowed to. Unless we're allowed to once we develop it from cores pulled from Forbidden Worlds? If so, that would suggest the ship was built by one of the other two people who knew about the Forbidden Worlds. Or at least, someone who studied the cores of sentires.
Thinking about this is affecting me a lot and now I want to go into one now. I need to wait until we have one that we can handle, either because we're enough Levels over it or because we have a suitable party.
"So in about three days," I decide to pull my thought away from those possibilities. It may not be magitech, after all. "We'll head out, to investigate the haunted ship once more. I'll see if it is a spirit or not this time, and if not, then what this defense mechanism is that prevents people from stealing it. Unless we end up going somewhere else for something after that, we'll come back here to rest before heading out to Rezovekk's lair."
"Rezovekk's lair is rather far," Adrian says. "Unless you're able to travel at high speeds even with your flight, that must be a journey of two or three days. Just how far is your range with this camp being your base?"
So he knows of Rezovekk still being alive, then. Not just because of Ovrodonos mentioning it, as I doubt they'd have dug up the location this fast just from that. No, I think Adrian already knew about the lightning dragon even before our resurrections.
"Only a few hundred miles, mostly," I say. "Rezovekk is the exception, but only because I want to pay him a visit sooner rather than later. Regardless of what other adventures I might get the idea for while over there, we'll be returning here immediately after. There are some things I want to take care of in this region still. The stuff in Rezzy's area can wait."
"You knew of Rezovekk?" Kyron asks. "It seemed like it was more than just because of Ovrodonos mentioning it."
"Yes," Adrian nods. "I didn't know he was actually still alive until I heard about Lord Ovrodonos appearing and mentioning it, but I did know where his mountain was."
"Okay," I set my plate on Kyron's, since we're both done eating, then I pull a few things out of my ring. "I need some stuff before going over to Rezovekk's. I decided to make him a gift, and want some high-quality lightning magic crystals and lightning monster cores, if possible."
Better than what I got from Nozvinel.
"Since we have probably five days," Kyron says. "Would you be willing to acquire the materials for us? We do have some stuff that can be traded for them. He probably wants some plain iron as well, though I think he still has some that he took from Jelvriaz's cave."
"Boraniavos also snuck some into my ring," I tell him.
"How much?"
"Do you really want to know?"
"Yes."
"You don't."
Kyron groans and Enziakos laughs.
"We can do that," Adrian tells me. "Though it will be Meredith handling the trade of that wyvern leather, if that's one of the things you want us to handle…"
"That's fine," I tell him. "I was only asking you because she said you were in charge. If you weren't here or she hadn't said that, I would've just asked her. Meredith, I need twenty each of crystals, half-inch monster cores, one-inch monster cores, and two-inch monster cores, all lightning, and all of a high quality. Kyron and I have a lot of stuff we can trade."
"You do know that Adrian said Meredith for the wyvern leather, right?" Kyron asks.
"What size crystals?" Meredith asks.
We talk for a few minutes to determine what items are best for the transactions that will need to take place, then I pull out Novabodos and leave the fire. With that stuff taken care of and a promise that they should be able to have the items purchased and here within five days (with a few extra items to sell for expediting this for us), I can now move on to the next order of business.
I'm more powerful than I was when I constructed the house and bathhouse, even if those were enchanted with earth crystals to strengthen them. On top of that, Novabodos reduces the Mana cost and doubles the Magic of all magics channeled through it. That means that manipulating the stone rubble from the two buildings is of no difficulty for me.
Utilizing my staff, I alter the stone to strip out the old enchantments and strengthen it, then begin the construction of the new house. Someone must have expected me to build a mansion, as there's more stone that was conjured after we arrived, sitting beside the house rubble.
Since Kyron and I will eventually leave this house behind once we're done doing things in this area, I decide to make it a little bit nicer than I was originally planning on. Instead of a commoner's home with just a single room that might have a loft, I construct a two-story house. The upper level only is a loft on the back wall which only takes up half of the house in width, leaving the rest of it open with a set of stairs leading down. A wall only three feet in height lines the edge of the loft, from the edge of the stairs to the opposite wall. A similar wall separates the loft, with a gap between it and the edge's wall. That way, the loft can be used as a pair of bedrooms.
On the lower level, there's a wall that runs halfway down the house, creating full rooms beneath the loft. That is split into three areas, with two of them being rooms and one of them being a passage straight to the back exit/entrance of the house. The left-hand room on the back wall has some shelves constructed on the walls and a stone table set into the center.
The full room at the right-side of the back of the house is converted into a washing and bathing room complete with a waterfall on one wall. This will give us our own private bathing area, and utilizes the same enchantments a proper bathhouse would have – but not as rushed as the old one. The job is still quick, but my greater casting ability and higher Magic allow me to set the enchantments better and do a more complex setup.
A fire pit is created in the very center of the house, set against the dividing wall. A chimney starts five feet above it, a stone chute that stretches straight up to the ceiling and above. One corner of the main room has a kitchen added in, complete with a cooling box, a freezing box, a stove, a sink, and some counters. Openings for doors are created as well, with no stone sheets placed into them – Meredith lets me know as I work that they have some doors for us to use.
As with the old bathhouse, I create a roof that can house a garden, and I fill it with some of the soil I pull from beneath the house for the construction of the cellar. I also set up the water flows for the roof, including a waterfall that flows down the back wall, split into two in a parting around the back door, creating a pair of streams in the back yard.
Using the extra stone, I create a wall surrounding the house, giving it an enclosed yard with a gate made of an enchanted steel alloy I create from some of what I have. I create some stone paving blocks to lead from the front door to the gate, as well as to create a paved space in the back yard along with a small pond for fish, which the streams flow into. Small stones make up the bed of the pond, to help with the water retention.
A couple of small stone bridges allow for an easier time crossing the streams, and a special enchantment setup allows for the excess water to be taken care of.
There will always be flowing water from the small pond on the roof, but it will never overflow the streams and pond that I've created.
The last order of business for my magic is creating and enchanting the glass panes for the windows. I also create a few small lamps with enchanted metal alloys and glass shells, light magic crystals for light, and mana crystals to fuel them. A simple enchanting network creates a link between the two that can be disconnected or connected at will, controlling when the lamp is actually on.
"Thanks, Meredith," I tell her once I finish setting up the window holes and door frames to allow for the windows and doors to be installed. "Didn't expect there to be light crystals ready. We just use fire to light things, like most people."
"I know," Meredith says. "But I asked Adrian if he could bring some light crystals, as you showed enough knowledge of magic and making magic items that I assumed you might know how to make magic lamps."
"Caleb can make even more complex ones," Kyron says. "Instead of just moving a small piece forward or back to complete or break the enchantment to turn it on or off, he can create ones that can even adjust how much light is actually emitted. The Mana efficiency on these lamps isn't too good as it was a rush job."
"My dad taught me how to make them," I nod. "When I was little. It takes me about an hour, and they use a special type of enchanted mana crystal called a 'mana battery'. They can be recharged by people putting Mana into them. I can even make chandeliers, with the right materials. Not ones that need fire, but ones that use light crystals."
"That is… interesting," Meredith says. "How sturdy is this house?"
"I'd estimate it to be around 120 Constitution in comparison to the strength of the stone," I inform her. "Thanks to the use of this staff and the earth crystals and enchantments. This was still a rush job, though, and I'll probably make some slight adjustments to it over time, as we stay here. Tomorrow and the day after, I'll work on the bathhouse and set it up even better, including with decorations this time, to make it more than just a blocky place."
"Thank you, Caleb," she says. "Your help is most appreciated."
"I'll also leave behind more notes on how to do the construction and enchantments," I tell her. "So that your own builders can work on them. They won't be as good of a quality as mine, of course, but it will work just fine for normal purposes. Unless this place gets attacked by a monster that's far above the norm or by a powerful group of warriors and mages, it would be fine."
"Thank you," she says.
"Oh!" I say. "A couple of things before I forget. At some point either this stay or our next one, I want to make a fountain with a statue of you. Would you be okay with that?"
"Why?" She asks.
"Because it's proper to ask permission first?"
"No," Kyron snorts. "She's asking why you want to do that."
"Oh!" I exclaim. "Because you're awesome, that's why."
"Can you make one of me, too?" Enziakos asks.
"Of course I will," I tell him. "I'm already planning on making some water spouts with your wolf form as their design, the water flowing out of your mouth, for the bathhouse. Since this is your territory, of course the fountain is also going to include you. I was thinking of it being Meredith sitting on you, the water coming out of her nipples instead of her mouth."
"Ooh, I like that," the spirit says.
"I will think about it," Meredith tells me. "If that's okay."
"No pressure," I tell her. "If not, I can just make one of Adrian instead."
"Alright," she responds. "You said a couple of things? What was the other?"
"I know it's only midnight right now," I tell her. "But don't expect Kyron and me to be up before noon the next two or three days. We won't be going to sleep until around sunrise."