Prevailing theory is that I’ve been helping clean up the minor pockets of miasma and keeping the excess Qi’s and elemental essences down by absorbing them and expanding my domain. Into Eager Heart.

Not dying from a long sleep? They’ve found places where I’m most likely to pull in outside items and using those as feeding points or offering spots for tribute. One, I do what? Two, ew. How in the hells am I supposed to not feel alarmed by the fact that there are a bunch of sweaty tryhards finding spots to shove stuff into my hole. Phrasing! Fack! No facking! Ugh?!

“Ah!”

Everyone freezes by my brain hurts. The bears flattened my void, but I made mountains. They made farms, but they requested items. And they’ve got some auto things set up. They had free range of my permissions, didn’t kill me, but there’s no way people were wasting rare --. No, if they thought they were getting a return, -- they give me one seed, they expect 5 back? -- then they might have been giving me rare shit. But I was sustaining it, with more Qi and bonuses for eating regularly.

“Fack!” I put my arms on the table and slam my head down on them, the table completely fine. I take a deep breath, wiping my face with my hands, then turning to pout at the old stablehand. “You’re the one who’s been in communication with the bears?”

“The bears?” he keeps his head lowered respectfully, -- he’s not mocking me and he’s not afraid. Real respect? -- but his eyes dart around as he looks towards the others for clues.

“Hold on,” I stand up, moving away from the table and closer to the wall in case someone needs my chair, -- there are, like, 20, but people be peopling, -- and slip into my bank. I pop up next to Red, grab their sleeve, and move everyone to the center of the burrow area. “Okay, I’m awake now, and you guys are coming out with me. I need to go over some shit, and I’m not doing some back and forth nonsense until this gets sorted out.”

“We--,” Red says but we’re already standing in the conference room.

“That wasn’t the discussion,” I inform them, sitting back down and gesturing for them to join me. “I don’t know if these are the cubs or some bad actors, and we’re going to get this cleared up now.” I lean back and turn to look over my shoulder at the hulking figures huddled against the wall. “Sit down and talk. We’re not in my void. This is a void outside my void, and supposedly these are the people you have been interacting with.” I turn to the old man. “How do you communicate with the people who were with my body?”

Several seconds go by and no one says anything. They barely move. I’m still sitting, arms across my chest, waiting for them to introduce themselves, out themselves, lose their shit, waiting for someone to do something, and no one has said a word.

“If you’re waiting on me to introduce you, you lot have been interacting for longer than I’ve been awake in this Empire. I want proof that you all are who you say you are,” I point back and forth between the old man and the robed and hooded bears. “Introduce yourselves.”

“Wait, you don’t know these people?” Nate asks pointing between the old man and the bears.

“I was asleep,” I remind him. “I call Fresh Caught Fish ‘Trinity’ because of how many threes there are in his face,” that made more sense in my head. They’re nodding but I wonder if they actually get it. “I don’t know this man. I spent no time in the stable. I met you all, we came here, I tried running around,” I shrug. “Then we had the mission, and I had to go to sleep.”

“You did a lot in such a short time,” Joe says to himself, rubbing his bare chin as he stares up and out at who knows what.

“Ah, that’s right,” Nate nods and I wonder if I accidentally gave them cover stories. Shit! “You came out a few times and said you weren’t awake yet, then you’d ask for something or just stand around, and disappear again.”

That’s not embarrassing at all. My face is burning and I don’t know how I’m blushing when I’m a bug. Isn’t my hunan form supposed to be a decorative illusion? How the fuck am I blushing? I think I blush in bug form, too. I imagine ichor pooling in my face. Tch, gross.

“In the Lesser Den--,” -- are they referring to my void? Fuck you. -- “-- the ‘Aunt’ and ‘Uncle’ would appear in random places.”

I’m sorry, I was shifting in my sleep?

“The ‘Uncle’ was much more belligerent than ‘Aunt’,” Big Bertha says, indicating me before humphing and crossing their arms.

“The Uncle got into all my carefully sealed containers, ruining all my hard work!” Bendy whines. Is this their inquiry or mine?

“The Aunt tried to give me a Judgement to use as a mortar,” Guts and Bendy both shudder, and I freeze as I open and scan my bank to see if I accidentally gave away my mills.

“Oh, thank all,” I collapse in relief when I see I have more than one milling cloud, then blank when I see that I have five.

Did I make Judgements? And survive?! Holy shit, I’m amazing!

How much have they been feeding me?

Why do I still feel energized? I excuse myself to go to my void, move to the lake and plop down in the damp dirt. On a whim I take out the miasma tablet and plant it in the lake. If I auto siphon energy, I’d rather drain this and suck on it like a hard candy when I want to.

[Name: Kisandera “Kissy Kissy” or “Sandy” or “Eclipsed Rainbow”]

[Affiliation(s): Thousand Valleys, Seven Moons, Companion of the Sacred Phoenix Sovereign, Inner Void Productions, Wimble Sunrise, Scarlet Silk Society, The Naturalists, Hunter’s Association, Eager Heart]

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

[Race: Celestial Void Moth Queen[Shattered] (Saint)] 🦋

[Current Form: Reduced]

[Current Realm: Shimmering(Tier 5)]

[Current Karma: 95,271,302/107,275,977]

[Master: Shimmering Steel]

[Max Will: 9,579,451]

Rank: SS

[Current Condensed Qi: 1,831,177/23,817,825]

[Current Qi: 1,812,046/957,945,100]

Kinda pissed that my reputation with Thousand Valleys and Eager Heart is the same considering how much effort I put in for the school. And weren’t they claiming credit for my existence? That’s not reputation.

Excuse me? I pause as I wait for the rest of whatever the fuck that instinct, intuition, or errant thought was. They’re not reputation… The colors aren’t reputation indicators. Persephone…? Being a companion to an Emperor… Is more important than being a house pet! The colors don’t indicate reputation, they indicate how valued the associations are! So what do the colors mean?

Really? Nothing. I scoff and throw a handful of damp soil into the thin, ground hugging miasma fog. So helpful, brain. Ss. Brains. Whatever.

Skills? I maxed out on something. Absorption? Eating. Feeding! Back to the Smorgasbord, search for nom levels, acknowledge Landlord achievement.

Okay, what the fuck. I look to see that I’ve held people in my shelter for extended periods, at least 5 for a full year minimum, and I get rewarded for that shit.

Oh, I get rent? 5K Karma and Qi. Tch! Disappoint. Doesn’t sound worth it considering how much it costs just to maintain the crops and what not. What else… There! I find another big number over small number achievement to find out I’ve created over 1000 of something.

Fuck off! Where’s my feeding thing? Smorgas-Board or… How do I see Devour stuff? I focus on swarming, -- feed the horde! -- and open my party window.

Holy fuck, Silent Howl’s alive. I’m way too excited by the thought of tracking him down and --.

Dude, I’ve got the energy. I think.

I cross my arms and legs, and try to focus. Pros and cons of doing a quick and dirty extract. Transfer in, not have enough energy and pass out.

“I’m out,” I stand up to sit back in my seat in the conference room. “Back.”

Wait, I never found the Feeding thing.

“You’re th-- our? Aunt. And Uncle…?”

“Hmm?” I look around to see the bears are sitting around the table, and there’s a free seat on either side of me. Nifty. “I am me, yes?”

I try to pay attention and stealth dig through my various windows after opening them while Guts does a brief recap of what they discovered while I was faffing around not accomplishing anything. Red is the healthiest, Big Bertha or Jaws is bigger, Guts became a picky eater after getting shredded trying to eat me as a cub, and Bendy was warped the least by bone melting poisons.

Bone melting? The all of them were dissolving! According to the bits and pieces I’m picking up from the group alchemist, she, and they’re all ‘she’, -- Red has boy bits, but they’re a girl... Probably so they don’t stand out too much. Wonder how they’ll feel when they find out most of the people around me are male? And they’re the most proactive and group conscious? And the runt I found crying in the burrow starving to death where the others scent was still together. Sad --.

Where was I?

We’re discussing how the old farmer and Joe were both talking to the bears, which confuses them, and apparently Joe’s in trouble now. He’d been instrumental in getting them to develop as cultivators, but he wasn’t supposed to be interfering with Grampa’s helping them figure out how to rat.

“You’re rats?” I shout in disbelief, snapping back to attention. “I picked you up when you were the size of my thumb, how are you this big and called rats?”

“Our size doesn’t change what we are,” Bertha says as everyone exchanges confused looks.

I blank as I realize I’m the last one to call someone out on size.

“But you’re --,” Freckles starts, pointing at me, brows furrowed in confusion.

“Yeah, no, I realized it after she said it,” I wave him off, using the other hand to rub at my forehead as I lean against my hand, elbow resting on the table. “So I’m awake, my altars probably changed, is there somewhere else we can use as a drop off that isn’t just the apartment, and why are people allowed to wander around in here?” I finish, going from thoughtful to pissed.

I’m on public display. Not having a room is one thing, people actively ogling my unconscious hole --. I really need to stop calling my void my hidey-hole… Fack!

“We hoped the ward and alarms would be enough to protect your anchor, but that doesn’t appear to be the case,” Nate sighs. Blushing. Why?

“And I never wandered out of it when I was asleep…” I narrow my eyes at him, ‘cause that doesn’t sound right at all.

“Um…” Nate’s eyes slide away, but he’s still got his hand on the back of his head.

“A few times you’ve run into the ward,” Freckles admit. “You’d rear up and scream, then go invisible.”

“I can’t go invisible,” I give him the most confused side-eye.

“Eclipsed Rainbow wasn’t invisible,” Joe speaks up. “They’d somehow Void Step out of the wards, past the alarms, and wouldn’t set them off.

“I’ve got a few people out who’d help locate them, then I’d go out and retrieve them.” He gives a tired sigh and sits up, placing his forearms on the table and clasping his hands together. Looking bored and tired. “I’d use my key to bypass the system and put Eclipsed Rainbow back. Figured it was best to not alarm anyone or give any thieves an opportunity to make off with the ‘Imperial Treasure’,” he finishes mockingly, leaning back into his seat.

I sit very still as Nate, and Freckles go off about Joe’s subtle damage control, network of informants, -- dude is totally a spy master. I knew no one could be that plain and be simple! -- and the bears are quietly exchanging tips about personal care with Grampa. Void Step sounds cool as shit, but I’m only transferring myself somewhere else. Not telling them that though.

I keep watching as the Bears slowly shrug back their hoods, and pull back their sleeves, but don’t actually undress. Are they… Modest? Prudes? They’re trying to keep themselves covered. Are they ashamed of their mutations? Or is it something I did as “Aunt”?

I look down and see my robes are bright green at the top, deepening to a rich black at the bottom with brown, gold, and green bamboo designs off to one side. I don’t know when I made myself look like the bamboo lake when I first made it to this Empire, but I like it.

Wait, were they requesting silk? They’ve got robes, but they look rather rough. Fack. Do I have an auto-deny for silk products? Why, yes. Yes, I do.

I go back through denied requests to see that their actually are a lot of very quiet, very subtle, -- how the fuck am I reading how they sounded when they requested it? Are they literally praying to me? -- requests for different sheets, beds, and everything requiring silk gets denied. Can I make cloud grass? What are their robes made of?

“They might be asleep again.”

I look over to see Joe push his chair back, standing up with both hands on the table, leaning forward, and it occurs to me that he says he was retrieving my sleepwalking ass, and I’m toxic on so many levels.

“You’ve been touching me?”

What the fuck, brain? Joe looks up with polite interest, and he really does think I’m talking in my sleep. Fucking fuck, how often have they had to deal with my bullshit? Well, this version of my bullshit. This aspect? This bullshit of my many bullshits.

“Sorry, waking up, going over stuff I might’ve missed, and I’m deadly toxic,” I point out after my ramble. “What have you been using to remove my shed scales?”

The air feels like it’s collapsing under its own weight as he continues to stare at me. Oh, he’s not blank he’s cold. Oh, shit, he’s pissed!

“I really don’t like being picked up.” In my defense I keep telling them to stop picking me up.