CHAPTER 15 – JUST WHEN I THOUGHT I KNEW IT ALL

SUNDAY, APRIL 30TH, 2056 - TIAMAT MANSION - BUTLER QUARTERS

"Ah, it does this old man's heart good knowing you will be taking care of my wayward daughter, young master," Sebastian says, wiping a tear from his wrinkled eye.

It was early afternoon when Ares and I had slipped away from the love nest that used to be my bed and made our way to find him. She was a raw bundle of nerves, which was amusing to see on the usually brash and confident drake. I found myself having to reassure and hug her much more than I did with even Sophia. The "Gap Moe" was strong with this one. I couldn't tell if she was nervous, pissed off, or about to break down, but she calmed when I held her hand and interlaced our fingers.

We had found Sebastian organizing the maid staff near the kitchens. He wore his usual black and white butler suit. His grey hair was slicked back and his calm, blue eyes sparkled with mirth seeing us walk up to him, hand in hand. I asked if he had a moment for a private chat and he happily agreed. He knew full well of Ares being added to the harem, but he had not yet heard, nor would he have dreamed, that I was actually marrying her.

It is normally understood that drakes would be concubines to dragons if they took an interest and little more than favored bed toys. Yet, for some reason, this was seen as a great honor to their race and not humiliation. Dragons do sometimes take particularly exceptional drakes as a wife or husband, and when this happens, the date is usually marked as a new holiday for that drake's family. This is because it means thousands of years of protection, wealth, and stability for the entire family. Dragons are known to fiercely protect and take care of what they consider to be theirs.

The revelation that I wanted to actually marry her was like a refreshing breeze on a hot day for the old man.

"Of course, I have no complaints...Unfortunately, we do not have much of a dowry to give-"

"Please, Sebastian, that will not be necessary. Having such a wonderful and strong-willed wife will be a gift in and of itself. She has done a great deal for me already, and I imagine she will continue to help keep my family and my estates in line...though they are now hers as well. This will be an equal partnership, after all." I finish with a kind smile at the old butler.

"Equal!?!" Sebastian splutters.

"Zen, we need to talk about this first...Your amnesia is getting in the way of some...customs. It is not right for a drake to stand on equal-" Ares panics behind me and whispers desperately into my ear, but I give her hand a tight squeeze to quiet her.

"This will be an equal partnership, no complaints. Understood?" I say and give her a hard look daring her to refute my words.

She squirms under my glare and her eyes dilate a bit as a small, crooked smile forms on her face telling me it was time to stop before things get awkward for her father.

"Thank you, young mas-" Sebastian starts, choking up a bit, but I interrupt him as well. I am on a roll!

"Call me Zeneff, please." I pat him on the back with a warm smile. "With our new relation, I was hoping you would let me call you father."

"I...I..." Conflicting emotions well up in his heart, but the worried look from his little girl eases the tension and he sighs. "I cannot keep at your pace, it would seem. As you wish, I will call you Zeneff. I would be most honored to be called father by you."

"Excellent. Now, Ares," I say and spin to her, finally letting go of her soft, warm hands. She pouts at the lost contact but looks at me attentively all the same. "I want you to take some alone time and think more about what I said yesterday. Let me know when you are ready. No rush. If you want to meet with them, I will support you, but if you wish not to, I will also support that decision. Consider talking to your father about it as he may have some insight you do not or are missing. I have several things to take care of, but I will see you later this evening." I finish and kiss the back of her hand. She blushes heavily, but nods all the same.

I wish a good day to my new father-in-law and make my way back to my room to pick up Hagiwara. It is time to take her dad down a peg and have a nice, long talk with her mom. I pause when I notice several new man-sized holes in the walls of the mansion. it looks like Xerith pissed off mother again... Looking through them all, I see him sitting lazily in a chair about 100 feet away taking deep sips from a huge bottle of liquor. I cautiously make my way over, through the wall, and greet him.

"Hey, Dad..." I say awkwardly.

Xerith looks up at me like a man that has given up on life. "Hey, Zeneff. What's up?"

"Uh...Just wanted to say hi and see how you are doing..." I say, scratching the back of my head.

He stares at me for several seconds with a difficult expression, before sighing and taking a swig from the bottle again.

"My daughter is a sex fiend who likes to tell me about all of the weird shit you have tried together with your other women, my wife and mate has informed me that she will be fucking you...but promises that she still loves me and wants to be with me, and to top it all off, you ascended to Godhood before me and I can't beat your ass even if I wanted to. How the fuck do you think I am doing, Zeneff?" He demands quietly, but the anger and resentment can be heard in his voice.

I wince and look away. "Yeah, I guess that is understandable. For what it is worth...I am sorry. I never planned any of this. I just wanted a normal family...not this fucked up mess."

I really do feel awful about all of this. I swore I wouldn't be with a woman who was married now that I was here, but I literally have no choice. She is my Goddess. That may sound like something superficial, but, here, religions hold serious magical significance. I swore an oath to follow her will, or at least Zeneff did. If she tells me to do something, it is an order I have to follow or my magic will turn against me. If I ignore her will I could very well lose all of my magic and power...maybe even my life. Divine magic is...scary AF.

A bark of laughter takes me away from my depressing musings, and I turn, wide-eyed, to gawk at the red dragon who is currently rolling on the floor in laughter. "She was right! You really aren't Zeneff!" He laughs and points. "You should have seen your fucking face! I know my grudge was not against you, but damn, that felt good."

I am at a complete loss. The serious atmosphere from before is completely gone and I am having whiplash from how fast we left it.

"Sorry, ha! S-sorry, Zeneff," he says wiping tears of joy from his eyes. "I was just fucking with you, I couldn't help it! Haha!"

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"I don't understand..." I say and rub the bridge of my nose and feeling a headache coming on, "Care to let me in on the joke?"

"Yes," he says taking a deep, steadying breath and standing, "But first, let me reintroduce myself. I am Xerith Redscale, 114th mate to Tiamat and high priest of her faith in this world. Were you the original Zeneff, you would have realized how ridiculous my statement was. Just a little test, not that I doubted Tiamat, mind you. Nice to meet you...Mark was it?"

I cast several silencing, anti-detection, and anti-scrying spells around us and sigh again. "Yea. That was my name. Zeneff ascended, or so I have been told... I gotta be honest, this is not the greatest first impression, High Preist Xerith."

"Ah...yes." He says a bit awkwardly and bows to me, conceding to my point. "Sorry...I hated Zeneff, you see. He killed my first mate after raping her in front of me...all because I didn't show him the proper respect as a son of Tiamat. She accepted me as her mate in recompense and I have lived a good life here, even coming to love our Goddess in a way few can. You also don't have to worry about being with her. We have a very open relationship with both of us having lovers on the side. I do love her and I think she loves me, but who am I to tie down a Goddess. She does what she wants. Though I do have to put up with some outbursts from time to time..." He smiles wryly and waves at the broken walls.

'Well...shit. I can't even hate the guy now. Zeneff was THE WORST. I guess I can let him have his fun at my expense just this once. It's not like he really did anything but make embarrass me, after all. I am no Xianxia young master.'

"I see. I am truly sorry for what he did...But can we put that behind us now? I am not that Zeneff, and I would really rather be on good terms with my future wife's father..." I say and offer him a hand for a shake.

He smiles and takes it, giving me a firm handshake. This situation reminds me of the first day I came here...hang on...

"Wait," I say taking back my hand and looking at him in confusion, "If you hated him so much, why did you hug me on my first day here?"

"Hah..." He sighs, "That was part of a test Tiamat set up. She commanded me to play along and I did my best. All I knew at that point was your 'Amnesia.' I nearly puked having to hug you...though I suppose it wouldn't be that bad now...." He trails off.

"A test!?! How much of it was?" I demand. I made a lot of decisions based on that night, dammit!

"Pretty much all of it. I must say, her swinging you around like a ragdoll while hugging and babying you was very entertaining. Don't worry, you passed. She would have killed you otherwise. Oh, you should know, her becoming attracted to your soul was not part of the test. That took us both by surprise."

I am feeling more and more confused by each passing moment and hold up a hand to organize my thoughts. After a couple of seconds and some deep breaths, I start over.

"Was Diana in on it?" I ask with more than a little trepidation.

"Not at all. She was completely herself that night. On that subject, you should know that Diana is not your blood-related sibling. That is the reason the old Zeneff cruelly sealed her feelings for you. She is technically a nameless dragon. We think of her as our daughter, so we have never told her. I would appreciate it if you kept that secret as well." He says and, again, I am taken aback. I mean, this is good news, but still, this is too many revelations all at once!

"I found her egg being sold on the black market and asked Tiamat if we could raise her as our own. She agreed and the world now believes she is our daughter together, but, of course, the old Zeneff knew the truth and sealed her romantic feelings for him as soon as he saw them. I believe he was disgusted to have a nameless dragon love him."

"God, what a dick," I say.

"Agreed." Xerith nods, "I much prefer this version of Zeneff, especially as a caring father. You treat her well and she is happy. I thank you for that." He smiles at me and pats my shoulder.

"Well, I better be off to see if the Goddess needs anything from me today. Oh! Before I forget," he spins and salutes me with a hand over his heart. His fingers are set as devil horns with the rest in a closed fist. This is the super silly sign for a Tiamat worshiper, but you'll never hear me say that out loud... "I wish you luck on siring the entire next generation of Tiamat's army." He smirks and turns to go.

I watch him leave through the door and heave myself another massive sigh.

'Well...I guess that is that taken care of...But really...fucking...shit!'

* | * | *

Hagiwara and I once again stand before the Kitsune couple. Hime looks at me with equal parts happiness and worry and Katashi has a dark look on his face as he glares at me. I am wondering just how to start this when the choice is taken from me.

"Father...do you work for The Night Council? Were you one of the ones that orchestrated the attack on the Hikaru Compound as well as our own?" Hagi asks with a frown at her father.

'Uh...Okay. I guess we can start with that.'

A pin drop could be heard in the room...Then...

"Zeneff, you traitorous son of a bitch!" He yells in anger and, before anyone can move, he slaps 2 talismans on the floor. Two blue glowing spheres of energy erupt from the ground. The first one wraps tightly against Hime, securing her in place, and the other forms a bubble around both Katashi and Hime's barrier. He smirks at me as he takes out a black wavey ceremonial dagger that has an empty tube in the middle of the blade.

"It matters not! Once I steal the Royal Kitsune blood and inject it into myself, I will gain all of Azuza's power. She is not just the patriarch, she is the Kitsune Goddess! To think she hid in the open this whole time! We have spent years looking for her and she was right under our noses! With that much power, I can easily kill you both, just like I killed your real father, fox." He smirks at Hagi and his form shimmers and distorts, replaced by a 60-something-year-old, balding, fat man. He walks over to Azuza and gropes her breasts through the shield.

"Too bad, I wanted to enjoy fucking this prude, but for some reason she always refused me. Oh well. Once I have her power, I can fuck anyone I want! Starting with your fox whore, Zeneff. She will make an excellent substitute for Azuza." His smile turns even crueler as he licks his blade.

Hagiwara grits her teeth in fury, but I just roll my eyes and look over to Azuza. "How long are you going to keep this up, Hime? I can break these if you want, but I figure you would rather do it."

"Ha! You are such a fucking moron! Are you blind? These are the strongest barrier talismans you made! How does it feel to know that I stole them from you!?! You told us that even you wouldn't be able to break them! Hahahahaha-"

"He obviously lied," Hime says in a flat tone as her barrier shatters and the fat man is cut in four equal halves from top to bottom by her claws. The bloody slabs of meat that were once a man fall to the ground and the room is silent once more.

Hagiwara and I quickly rush over to her and check her for injuries.

"I'm fine, Zeneff. Hagi...I am sorry you had to find out this way. That man killed your father and I was getting as much information as I could from him before I planned on torturing him for a couple of hundred years..." She sighs and looks down tiredly. "Guess that plan is a bust now."

"Daddy...daddy is dead?" Hagiwara sobs and I scoop them both into my arms, ignoring Hime's protests. I usher us to the same side room I destroyed last time and sit them down on the newly replaced couch. I nod to Hime and then walk out of the room to let the mother and daughter have a moment to themselves.

45 minutes later, the door opens and Hime walks out, looking haggard. The sadness and defeat on her face breaks my heart and I pull her in for a tight hug. She fights me again with half-assed punches, but stops after a bit and starts crying herself. I hold her in my arms for several minutes and rub her back. This sucks. I hate that she is in so much pain. That she has been for so long.

Memories from Zeneff's past flash before my eyes. All of them are interactions with this beautiful fox woman. Meeting at a mascarade party, dancing and having fun the whole night, Zeneff seducing her, him deciding not to leave after the deed as he had with so many others before, Hime opening up and explaining her husband's death 200 years ago, a friendship born from lust and cravings blooming into something more, him explaining his situation and powers, her trying to help, him feeling conflicted but eventually giving her 6 of his 7 true names even if he didn't know why he was, the drive for sex and feelings of lust expanding...evolving, until he just wanted to be in the same room with her, no matter what they did. Real trust. Real friendship. The feelings and emotions that the old Zeneff never could comprehend. The understanding that I have what he lacked. He never understood, the fucking dense idiot. I can help. I want to help...

'I need her.'

"Is there somewhere we can go to talk?" I ask her softly, "I have something important to discuss with you."