It was the day after I had returned. The whole family was gathered in the garden. Maeve was excited about having her mommy and daddy home and kept wanting to play. Something we indulged her in. Garion and Artemis joined in the game as well. The two of them were especially close, if Garion went somewhere, Artemis followed. If Artemis went somewhere, Garion would follow her as well.

  We were racing around in the garden, while Baldur lazily looked at us playing, from his spot on the table. Quill had probably snuck into my office again. Looking at the books. Zac was nursing at his mother’s breasts, while she was sitting at the table observing us play. Shenerah was sitting next to her, while Lily and Nathalie were bathing in the pond. Their nakedness was a bit distracting to me. Especially the curves of their tummies, which showed their pregnancies.

  My last son, Talen, was sitting at the edge of the pond, looking at the fish that were swimming around, disturbed by my wives’ presence. From time to time, he would try to catch one, despite being afraid of the water.

  It was peaceful, it was fun, but I could not help but worry. This was the place where Yathanae had died. It left me worried, even if I had done everything to secure the place. The spell crystals around the place were immense. There were spell crystals all around the grounds, they would trigger whenever they registered cloth, flesh, or metal within their range. Even illusion magic and invisibility could not fool them. They would send a signal to the guard room. The only way around those was to fly.

  To try and counter that, I had built small mortar-like devices that would shoot detection crystals into the air. There they would hover for a long while, before running out of magic. If there were anything within their radius they would light up. It was not perfect, but it was the best I could do.

  Living in this house was the only real point of contention between my wives and I. We had frequent discussions about it. I wanted them to go to Sanctuary, however, they refused. Emma and Shenerah wanted to stay because it was the closest they could be to Yathanae, without going to her parent’s place. Lily wanted to stay because it was the Hold that belonged to her family. Mina and Nathalie supported their fellow wives.

  I was chasing Garion and Artemis around, the two of them running shoulder to shoulder. It would be easy to catch them, but they enjoyed running at full speed, so I did not interrupt their enjoyment. They scurried up Shenerah’s dress and into her lap.

  She laughed. “Don’t worry, darlings, I’ll protect you from your mean daddy.”

  Garion changed into his human form, Artemis following a second later. Shenerah embraced both of them, making them giggle. Was there a more perfect sound in the world than the laughter of children? Yes, if the laughter was from your own children.

  I felt someone nibble at my tail. Turning around I saw Maeve scurrying away, to hide behind her mother. Emma’s eyes were sparkling with laughter. With a mock growl, I charged after my daughter. She let out a pitiful meow at her mother, who stepped forward, blocking my path.

  I gave her a wink before pouncing at her. What started out as a mock wrestling match, quickly turned serious. I sighed, as Emma suddenly started to turn make-believe into a serious wrestling match. I also knew what was going on. She was horny. She wanted to be dominated, and if I did not give it my all, she would be very disappointed.

  After two minutes of intense wrestling, I managed to get my teeth on the scruff of her neck and she immediately stopped moving. Her panting was mostly from arousal, not the exertion. I could easily smell her arousal.

  Maeve was meowing pitifully, probably thinking she had started a fight between mommy and daddy. I turned into my human form. “Maeve, honey. This was mommy and daddy playing. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

  She let out a questioning meow and Emma turned back to her humanoid form. “What your father said. We were just playing. We love each other very much.”

  With that, she gave me a scorching kiss, before turning into a cat and scurrying into the underbrush. I sighed. I knew she wanted me to follow her. I did not mind being naked around my kids, they had to learn that the naked body was nothing to be ashamed of. What I did not agree on, was Emma’s wanton public display of sexuality. That was maybe just a bit too early for them.

  Shenerah bent down and scooped up Maeve, who was looking in the direction her mother went. She gave me a smile and a shake of her head. “I’ll take care of the little huntress, you go deal with her mother.”

  I gave her a peck on the cheek and turned into a cat. It was time to hunt down my wife and teach her a lesson or two. Pleasurable lessons. It was one part of the cat’s anatomy I had figured out how to change. Or maybe not, seeing that she was being such a tease.

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  Time passed quickly, and in no time the caravan had arrived home. Meaning it was time for the domestic bliss to end. Except for the first two days, which I had spent entirely with the family, I had split my days between the family and the repository. Since I had the time, I started making some knowledge crystals. Crystals where I recorded whatever I knew about technological advances, science, medicine, and warfare. Some of the crystals had very little information, just containing memories of how it looked and what it did. Not how it did it.

  News of one disaster of another rolled in, but I was not officially there to receive them. It was actually a full two days after my return before we heard about the massacre on the good high lord. My wives were saddened by the passing of Lord Erthal, they even scolded me for it a bit. We had hosted his family and been hosted by them from time to time. While they found most of my wives a bit disconcerting, they bore it stoically and kept their opinions to themselves.

  In the end, they accepted that it was a necessary sacrifice, though they were not happy about it. Shenerah did raise a point though, “If you’re willing to sacrifice what could be regarded as a friend, are you willing to sacrifice your family as well?”

  I had vehemently denied that, but it did make me think about my actions. Could I have avoided doing it? Easily, just waited for Lord Erthal to leave, it was not like it was urgent. I just felt like it was time to take action. However, I was impatient for my revenge. I had already waited for two years.

  Which was a piss poor excuse to repay the friendship the Erthal family had shown me and my family. The more I thought about it, the more I regretted my actions. However, it was way too late by now. The only thing I could do was to make sure that his family stayed safe during the rebellion.

  We did not hear about the minor actions the Ghosts had undertaken, not even the destruction of the magic school Allister’s granddaughter had been kidnapped and given to. We did hear about the destruction of the Great Bazaar though. It was, after all, one of the most important institutions in the Thirteen Kingdoms.

  The news was delivered by one of the travelling slave traders. They had found out that we were a good Hold to get rid of their excess and poor stock. We did not pay a premium for them, but we were willing to buy everyone, even the old and infirm.

  That meant increased trade and tariffs for Lord Lin in the west, Lord Erthal in the south, and Lord Sylvester in the east. Which meant that my stock had risen with those three lordships. The fact that we had some of the best roads in the Kingdom helped as well. We had even gone so far as to pave the roads in other Holds for a small payment. Mostly payment in goods and foodstuff. Coin mattered little to me because I did not need to pay coin as wages, it all went to strengthen and better the lives of my serfs.

  Four days before my official homecoming, we received a summons from King Alfred, with regards to the selection of a new high lord. According to the laws and customs that I had found on the subject, it would normally be held in the high hold itself with only the lords of the high hold and the King in attendance. However, he had summoned us all to his capital, and from what I could read in the summons, every lord of the kingdom was summoned.

  So as soon as the caravan returned, I set out again with a set of new Wolf Guards. Nishka was not happy about being left behind, but she was road-weary, and I was wary of letting her get into a potentially dangerous situation. Which was ridiculous, because she was the head of my bodyguards. However, I fled from that argument, citing the urgency of getting to the high hold where I would be teleported to the capital.

  I was the last to arrive, something that was pointed out by a very irate chamberlain as he led me to my chambers in the middle of the night. Since I was back in the king’s castle, I wondered if I would get to see Milly again. Thinking about that I fell asleep, only to be woken a few hours later at dawn.

  I might have all the magic to do it myself, but it was weird taking a bath without the help of Saori, Mary, and Allianna. Being pampered was much better than washing yourself. Nevertheless, I had to make due. So five minutes later I was making my way through the castle to the throne room.

  At the end of the long throne room, there was Alfred’s throne, chairs for his advisors. Down the sides, there were thirteen chairs. Six on the left, seven on the right. On the right side, the second to last chair was covered by a black cloth. The chairs had a lot of space between them and behind each, there were another thirteen chairs. I was led to a chair behind the one with the black cloth.

  There were a handful of other lords already, only one that I recognized. Anders. Since only Lords were allowed to attend, he was without Chione. I sent him a glare that hopefully told him what I thought about him. Backstabbing little bitch. I wanted nothing more than to kill him, again. This time not leaving any chance of revival.

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  During the next half hour, more and more lords and High Lords arrived. Besides Nerd, I mean Adam, all the other summoned people in Alfred’s kingdom were still alive. Including Naziface. What a shame.

  Theo arrived, but to my surprise, he was not led to one of the chairs, but instead was instructed to stand behind us. So was Terud’s brother. When every seat, except the three in our section, had been filled, Alfred, the High Hierophant, and the crown prince arrived. When the High Hierophant’s eyes swept over me, he paused for a moment, anger mixed with grief flashing in them.

  “All rise,” someone shouted. All of us rose from our seat, just to kneel as the king passed by.

  Alfred slowly went to his throne, sat down and regarded us for a moment. “You may sit.”

  “Finally, my knee is killing me,” I muttered, intentionally loud enough for it to drift through the throne room.

  Alfred frowned. “Is there a problem, Lord Karth?”

  His tone conveyed barely restrained anger. I stepped out and bowed before saying, “Yes, Your Majesty. It’s my knee, it hurts a bit.”

  “I hear you can command all kinds of magic, including healing magic, surely it should not bother you,” he said mockingly.

  “Unfortunately, my liege, the problem is one that not even healing magic can solve,” I said, letting silence reign for a handful of seconds before continuing, “It seems to be allergic to kneeling.”

  His face fell for a moment, before he erupted in anger, “You insolent whelp. I’ll have you flogged.”

  I just shrugged. “If you say so, my liege. Not like it can hurt me. Think about how it would look though, flogging the Hero of the Bastion.”

  “Silence!” the good King Alfred roared. After a minute of him fuming, he finally said, “Sit down, and keep your mouth shut.”

  “My liege,” I said with a bow. It had been unnecessary, even a bit foolhardy, but it was a good way of reminding them of my status. And it fit with the image I had cultivated in the last two years. That of a drunken philandering jackass, living high and mighty on his reputation as the Hero of the Bastion.

  With my little interruption, the serving girls arrived. When the girl handed me a cup of wine, I stopped her by pinching her bottom. “Listen, Sweet Tits, I got two hands, either you give me another cup of wine, or you stay right there so I can keep my hand occupied.”

  Even Theo shook his head in disgust at my action. The girl quickly gave me another cup. I was secretly happy, I did not want to fondle up a servant, but I had a certain reputation to uphold. I immediately drained one cup, while she was filling Lord Lin’s cup. I had turned it into water.

  “Oh, Sugar Tits, not so fast, my cup’s empty,” I demanded haughtily. The serving girl immediately filled it and hurried away, before I could make more disparaging comments or demand more from her.

  I drained half the new cup, allowing it to remain wine this time, but I immediately used healing magic to remove the alcohol from my system. Lord Lin leaned over, whispering, “Karth, you should pace yourself. The King is volatile at the moment, there have been more attacks than we have officially heard about. Except for the Great Bazaar, the loss of High Lord Wilbur and Lord Terud and Erthal, is the largest attack that has happened. The King is under great pressure.”

  “I got this,” I replied full of bravado and indifference, draining another cup of water. It was more mana efficient to turn the wine into water, than healing the alcohol away. Also, for the healing magic to work, the alcohol had to enter my bloodstream. More importantly, I hated the taste of wine.

  I flagged down one of the serving girls with the flagons of wine. She seemed to go to great lengths to stay as far away from me as possible, while still serving me wine.

  After everyone had been served once and me several times, Alfred spoke up, “My good High Lords and Lords, we’re gathered here today because the Thirteen Kingdoms are under attack. Not from outside forces, but from traitors within.”

  There were gasps from some of the lords. Probably those that were in the dark, but most of the lords just nodded gravely. I slurped down a cup of water loudly, earning an angry glare from the Crown Prince. The King seemed to have taken the approach to just ignore me. I made a spectacle of myself as I flagged down a serving girl.

  “The cowardly attack at High Lord Wilbur, his Cardinal, and the Lords Terud and Erthal could have been made by outside forces. However, the attack on the Great Bazaar is without a doubt the work of traitors to the human race,” the King continued. “We’re gathered here today to see what can be done about it. However, first we need to elect a new High Lord to replace the late Wilbur.”

  Lord Lin rose to his feet, “Your Majesty, if you’ll allow this old man to speak?”

  Alfred waved for him to go on, so Lin continued, “As the longest reigning Lord, I would be an obvious choice for the new High Lord. However, I do not feel these times calls for the old to step up. A time of internal turmoil and war at the doorstep of our borders, we need a younger leader. However, too young and brash would be a mistake. I would like to nominate Lord Maelk for the position.”

  Lord Maelk gave a solemn nod as he rose up, he opened his mouth to start speaking but was interrupted by King Alfred. “Well put, Lord Lin, unfortunately, the choice of the new High Lord is not up to you lords.”

  “My liege, I don’t understand,” Lord Lin stated, clearly confused. “The election of a new high lord has always been the purview of the lords that are going to serve him.”

  “Only if all thirteen of you can come to an agreement,” Alfred said with a nod. “Unfortunately, you’re only eleven lords.”

  “My liege?” Lord Lin queried.

  “Only the high lord can approve the inheritance of a lord’s title. Without a high lord, the Erthal and Terud Hold are without a lord, meaning you’re only eleven lords and that I am the one choose the new high lord,” Alfred explained.

  He paused for a moment to let that sink in, before continuing, “You’re right, we need something new, something fresh. The summoned lords have another perspective than us. So I’ll open up the floor for any of our twelve remaining Summoned who wish to become the new high lord. Let me hear your plan on how to root out the traitors in our midst. The one that impresses me the most, will be the new high lord.”

  The throne room was silent for a few minutes before Naziface walked into the middle of the room. He was soon joined by an older man, a businessman if I remembered right. Inwardly I sighed, I would have to make more of a spectacle of myself.

  “Oi, that sounds like fun,” I roared with fake drunkenness and stumbled to my feet, I lurched forward unsteadily. When I passed Lord Maelk, I tripped a bit, spilling a cup of wine over myself and him. Mostly him. Slurring, I mumbled, “Sorry about that. A serving wench can clean that up. If you ask nicely she might clean you downstairs as well.”

  Lord Maelk just looked mortified, clearly, he did not know what to say or how to react. He just stood there, blinking. The Crown Prince stood up, looking angrily at me. “Karth, sit down, this is serious business.”

  “What are you talking about?” I asked, very confused. “Enemies to be fought, clearly you need the Hero of the Bastion. Who better for the job than the guy who stole from the Wood Queen?”

  He was about to retort when his father placed a hand on his shoulder. “No need to argue with a drunk.”

  “Yes, Father,” the Crown Prince said, but he was still glaring angrily in my direction.

  “Very well, what is your idea to find any traitors in our midst?” Alfred asked of the businessman first.

  “Very simple, Your Majesty. To run any form of organisation you need money. If we raise tariffs and taxes, we’ll be squeezing the traitors and their supporters,” the businessman explained. “With enough taxation, they won’t have the coin to operate. At the same time, the high lords and you, My Liege, can fund more security.”

  “It has some merit,” the king mused. “What about you Lord Walther?”

  “We start by rounding up everyone with sympathies towards the tainted beasts. Put them in camps until they’re processed. If we find that they have animosity towards our great Kingdoms, we’ll execute them on the spot,” Naziface said. Living up to his unofficial nickname.

  “How do we identify those with sympathies?” Alfred asked.

  “We start with those that fornicate with the beasts, then we go Hold by Hold, interrogating everyone with the help of fideomancers. Anyone who’s too tainted should be thrown in the camp without question,” Naziface answered fervently. That sealed it, no matter if he got the high holder position or not. Naziface would die today.

  “Interesting,” Alfred mused. My eyes narrowed for a moment. If he went through with that plan, there would be a regicide in the very near future. He turned to me. With disdain, he said, “And what about you, Karth?”

  “I got the best idea, Alfred,” I slurred sloppily, forgetting to address him properly. I chuckled happily every few words. “Appoint me high lord, I’ll put everyone in the entire high hold in slave collars—excuse me, serf collars. With everyone at my beck and call, I can get all the pussy I want. Oh, I can also make sure no one is disloyal.”

  “Out of the question, sit down, you drunken fool,” Alfred bellowed.

  “Jeez, what a buzzkill,” I mumbled as I went back to my seat.

  “Are you crazy?” Lin whispered to me when I passed by him. Maelk stared daggers at me.

  I waved over another serving girl as I sat down. Alfred’s voice boomed, “I think Lord Karth has gotten enough to drink.”

  “Hey,” I protested weakly.

  Alfred ignored me and turned to Naziface and Mister Business. “Both ideas have merit, I’ll consider them. I’ll give you my choice tonight. First, we have something else we need to get over with.”

  Alfred stopped speaking and the High Hierophant stepped forward. At the same time, a lot of other priests entered. I saw that many of them were clerics of Ghidana. What was a bit more disconcerting were all the armed guards that followed after them.

  “My King, what’s going on?” a High Lord asked.

  “Lord Walther and Lord Silas were right. It requires money to fund such operations and we need to verify the truth. Who has the most money? High Lords and Lords, so it’s time for you all to get questioned,” the High Hierophant said. Conveniently forgetting the Kings and the Church had more money and it might as well be one of them. “So gather round in the middle of the room, we’ll randomly choose who to question. All of you will be questioned at least twice.”

  Regardless of their intentions, I was not worried. I would easily pass any test they would put in front of me. I was still feigning a pout at being denied access to more wine. I was mingling with the others when I felt someone tug my sleeve. Looking, I saw it was Anders. He was looking away from me.

  “We got a problem,” he whispered in English.

  “I don’t see one,” I countered, letting out a loud smelly belch.

  “Without Chione here, I can’t pass their test.”

  I just shrugged. “That sounds remarkably like a you-problem, not a me-problem. So see you at your execution. They say karma is a bitch, well she certainly made you her’s bitch.”

  “It’s your problem,” he growled. A bit too loudly, making a few nearby lords look askance at us. Just like they were looking at the lords that were protesting this treatment.

  “Nope, all you buddy,” I replied cheerily, starting to walk away.

  “I’ll tell them everything I know about you, about your mixed-race children. How it was you that was behind the fall of the Bastion. You might be able to cheat their tests, but do you think that’ll matter when I tell them about your pet priest?” Anders hissed after me.

  His words made me stop mid-stride. I could feel my face paling. My eyes hardened and narrowed. It was almost as if time slowed down around me.