A small ring spun on the desk, catching the light on its polished surface repeatedly until it finally slowed and fell over. Then a pair of delicate hands would pick it up again, one delicate finger holding it upright while another flicked it, starting the process over again.
When a soft knock finally sounded at her door, Layla quickly scooped up the ring before the door opened to reveal Kinkade, Asura, and Aenwyn.
She hadn’t seen the duo for several years, but they looked exactly the same as she remembered them. Both were much taller than average and well above the curve in looks. They also still gave off no aura whatsoever.
“Welcome,” Layla said with a warm smile as she stood. “It’s good to see you both again. Please, sit and have some tea with me.”
“It’s good to see you, too,” Kinkade said with a smile that was like a beam of sunlight as he took one of the chairs on the other side of her desk.
“It’s been too long,” Asura said, as she too took a seat across from her.
Aenwyn took the role of server, pouring each of them a cup of tea before taking one for herself and sitting just off to the side. They spent the next serval minutes exchanging pleasantries and telling one another briefly what they’d been up to over the past few years. She was reasonably certain that while they weren’t outright lying to her, they were not telling her everything.
Which, really, was to be expected of people who had only met a couple of times in the past.
“Ah, but what an amazing coincidence! We’ll be in the region for at least a few years,” Kinkade said happily, startling her a bit. “I look forward to seeing you more often.”
She couldn’t help but smile back, as affected by his infectious smile as she was. It was truly a wonderful smile that was full of warmth and good cheer. But she couldn’t for the life of her see anything else behind it. She and Aenwyn had once observed how the man treated them warmly, almost like family. Nothing like what most men treated them like.
Then she thought about his actions over the years. Kinkade and Asura had travelled across Waeryn to their various auction houses located in the capital cities of various kingdoms and empires. They hadn’t visited her again, choosing a new location each time as though they were trying to keep the market fresh for their coveted healing topazes.
But with this new pink topaz that could regenerate a person’s body from fatal and disabling wounds, well, she was sure that they would no longer need to travel. People would now flock to her auction house.
“I always enjoy your visits,” she said, making sure to look both in the eye lest Asura think that she was flirting with Kinkade. “Here. The ring contains your profits from the sale of the gem,” she said, handing over the storage ring she’d been playing with earlier. “Even though we’d given a week’s notice of the sale, most weren’t able to gather anything but currency before arriving.”
“That’s all right,” Kinkade said with a shrug. “I’m honestly surprised that people were able to gather so many Tier 4 Crystals at all.”
Layla very much understood that. Tier 4 Crystals weren’t used normally in transactions due to their rarity and ludicrous cost. People instead preferred to barter items or favours when it came to such sums. Not only were the coins hard to come by, but they were very hard to produce.
The Crystal Consortium, the one legitimate producer of Crystal Coins and Cards in the world, only released a limited amount of Tier 4 currency every year. They said it was due to how difficult they were to make. It wasn’t just that, though.
As tightly as the Crystal Consortium kept the methods they used to create the currency of the world, some things leaked over time. Primarily, how they needed cultivators or practitioners to fuel the creation process of the currency. Tier 7 Mages, or practitioners in the Immortal Realm, weren’t by any means common.
Yes, there were the occasional Tier 4 Crystal mine found across the world. Most of which were owned by the Consortium. That said, the mines tended to be small and their production low.
“Well,” she said with another smile, this one more businesslike. “If you come across anything similar, do give us at least a month’s notice so that we can inform our VIPs well in advance. This way, we can be sure that your next item will not only sell for an appropriate amount, but also so that our customers can prepare appropriate items with which to barter.”
“That makes sense,” Asura said, nodding. “We’ll be sure to give plenty of notice next time.”
After that, they exchanged a few more pleasantries before leaving, Aenwyn leading them out.
Layla sat for a time, mulling over what had been said along with their body language until another knock came at the door.
A moment later, Aenwyn entered and sat across from Layla after pouring another cup of tea for each of them. They’d become fast friends since their first encounter with Asura and Kinkade and had sat like this countless times since.
“Your thoughts?” She asked Layla after taking a sip of her tea.
Aenwyn sighed before answering.
“Depressingly the same,” she said, recounting the entirely professional meeting and subsequent serving of the duo. “It’s not that I want people to ogle me, but even married men tend to look at least once. It’s like he’s a eunuch or something,” she said, grumbling slightly at the end.
Which caused Layla to almost spray tea out of her nose as she snorted in shock.
“There’s a thought,” she said, not wanting to entertain such an idea. “Unfortunately, everything else about him points at his… intact manhood.”
“I didn’t even catch him looking at you that way,” Aenwyn said, shaking her head. “I’m not one for the ‘honey pot’ method, but how are we supposed to make sure that they remain our customers?”
“I get the feeling that they value loyalty,” she answered as she tapped her lips with a finger. “We’ll just have to keep the course, building a foundation of trust between us.”
“That sounds reasonable,” Aenwyn said with a smile. “Besides, it’s refreshing being able to relax with such high-profile clients without worrying about other things.”
“I would imagine,” Layla said as a small smile touched her eyes. “Let’s also be sure that they continue to experience the best possible service from us. Make sure that any time they’re here, that security keeps anyone away that might cause them problems.”
“I’ll take my leave then,” Aenwyn said as she stood and gathered the used teacups onto the serving tray, picked it up, and slipped out of her office.
She remained there for a while afterwards, finger still tapping her lips in thought. Eventually, she murmured.
“But did they seem… closer this time?”
* * * * *
Tatia awoke with a gasp, hands flying about her body, touching here and there for almost a minute before she calmed, taking several deep and slow breaths. She looked around at the bright room and realized that she was in her own bed, under the covers. Well, not as much after her frantic movements upon waking.
She pulled up the sheets to cover herself once again when she noticed a new addition to her right hand.
Upon her second finger was a ring with an impressively large diamond. It was larger than her thumbnail cut in the cushion style. She had no idea why Joram had given it to her, but she wasn’t one to turn down a gift.
She looked at her hands then, taking her time examining every detail she could perceive. Her hands looked younger than they’d been in over a century and a half. Not that she’d aged much past her mid-twenties, though.
Tatia continued inspecting her body, noting that her birthmark was now missing, along with several moles. Her skin was perfect, not a blemish to be found. She also noted that it seemed to be the same tone as before.
She ran her hand down her forearm noting the silky smoothness, not a hair to be found. Then a thought came to mind, causing her hands to go up to her head. Her fingers met a smooth scalp, then a smooth brow. She felt at her eyelids and found that they, too, were gone.
“What the fu-“
The door to her room opened then, cutting her off as Sulia walked in and saw her sitting up, hands on her head.
“It’s a shock, I know,” Sulia said with a knowing and sympathetic smile.
Tatia stared at her granddaughter’s long and flowing hair. Hair that should have taken at least two years to grow that long. But if her timelines were correct, she’d only been a High Elan for about four months.
“Here’s the thing,” she said, then began describing the many wondrous and ludicrous things that came with her new body.
“All told, there are many advantages,” Sulia said from her spot beside Tatia on the bed. “Here, use this. You just need to add a sliver of Mental Strength, or as Joram calls it: psionic power. Just add a bit, and you’ll be able to access the information in it. It’ll help more than a bit,” she finished with a smile.
Tatia took the small, even sided crystal that caught the light in unusual ways and studied it for a moment before she remembered her ring.
She lifted her right hand and compared the two gems and realized that they both caught the light in similar ways. Which made no sense at all because they were different stones.
Sulia noticed her new ring and couldn’t help but stare before she finally spoke.
“I guess Joram already left you one,” she said absently, her gaze focussed on the large diamond.
“I think so too,” she said with a smile. “As amazingly dense as he can be, he does manage to surprise every now and then.”
Her granddaughter couldn’t help but laugh at that.
“Yeah, but he still needs a good tongue-lashing every now and then.”
Tatia couldn’t disagree with that.
* * * * *
“As awesome as this has been,” Avi said, getting up from the bed he’d shifted them to at some point in the last half day. “I really need to get to Dawn Star and get things going.”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Joram resisted drawing her back into bed, knowing that they both had responsibilities they needed to get to.
“Well, let me know if you need a hand with anything,” he said, stretching out as he manifested [Cleanse] to get them cleaned up enough to be in decent company again.
“Maybe bring the piano and do a few sets?” Avi asked as she retrieved new clothes from storage and got dressed.
“Hmm…. That doesn’t sound as terrible as it should,” he said, wondering at that change in him.
“Another side effect of the new heritage?” Avi asked as she leaned over to slip on some socks, giving him a fantastic view of her shapely posterior, including her new tail.
“Right, the tails,” he said, reaching out to stroke hers.
He was treated to a very girly, very aroused, squeal from her as she slumped over onto her back and right into his arms again.
“So, that’s a thing,” he said with a grin as her eyes focussed on him, her cheeks rosy.
“Yeah, we’ll need to do something about these,” she said as her hand shot out, arcing behind him to grab his own tail.
He immediately felt his strength being sapped from him while a feeling of such profound… satisfaction, like the best back scratches ever combined with that wonderful feeling of taking a nap in a sunbeam washed over him. Joram slumped over, face landing in the best cushions ever.
“I see your point,” he said around a face full of heaven.
“We can get back to this later,” Avi said with a resigned sigh. “I’m not sure how traumatic it’ll be to remove our tails, so I think we’ll need to wait until next weekend to try removing them.”
“I’ll make a modified jockstrap of holding for us in the meantime,” he said with a sigh.
“Wait, isn’t the full moon the day after tomorrow?” Avi asked suddenly, her eyes going wide.
“Well, crap,” he said, realizing the same thing she had. “I guess we should try to remove the tails before Sunday.”
After thinking for a minute, Avi nodded.
“We can try after I close Dawn Star tonight,” she said as she sat up, causing Joram to roll to the side and sigh.
“A bit of a pity,” he said, eyeing her tail. “They’re kind of… nice. Isn’t there training we could go through to resist transforming when seeing the full moon?”
“Oh, right,” Avi said, lightly tapping her closed fist into her open palm. “I think that there’s a gland that we can remove to not have to worry about transforming in the future.”
Joram just stared at her.
“It’s one of the things Altaea found out when one of her selves was over there,” Avi said with a shrug. “Anyway, once we remove the gland, we can work on editing our forms so that it won’t come back when we use a regenerative power, pill, or spell.”
“Damn, you’re all sorts of sexy when you go all geeky like that,” he said with a stupid grin on his face.
“Now, now. None of that right now,” she said as she slipped on her bra. “Get those modified jockstraps made up quick. I don’t want to be late.”
Joram sighed, then complied. By the time Avi was dressed and ready, he was done. Well, it was an exaggeration to say that she was “ready”. She’d left her pants pulled down to just below where her tail grew from the base of her spine as she waited for him to finish his work.
“Here, let me,” he said as he scooted forward on the bed to get closer to her.
Avi gave him a grin that just about broke his resolve to let her get back to work without another round of fun. He cleared his throat and lifted the tail-holding strap up. She also watched as he brought the “holding” portion of the strap over her tail, then ran it all the way up to her back, making it look like her tail was disappearing as it went.
He then passed off the ends of the strap so that she could tie them up front, not trusting himself to do that yet. Moments later, Avi was now properly clothed and ready to get going. He sighed.
“I’ll see you a bit later tonight,” Avi said, reminding him of her request.
“I’ll try to get there in a couple of hours,” he said with a weak grin, causing her to lean over and give him a soft kiss on the lips.
“I’ll see you then,” she said then shifted away, leaving him alone in his room.
Well, this is going to make things a lot harder, he thought as he remembered his promise to Avi’s friends. With just how primed he seemed to be, even after half a day of romping, he wasn’t sure that it would be a good idea for him to be around other beauties.
Not that he’d suddenly become a sex-crazed degenerate that couldn’t differentiate right from wrong. No, it was his blasted hormones. They’d suddenly surged again. Or was it that his impulse control had been affected by the change?
Whatever the reason, he very much needed to spend a lot of time in meditation to figure things out. Possibly even spending time in his High Elan form to escape the ridiculously powerful hormones or whatever was affecting him. At least as a High Elan he’d have perfect physiological control over his body.
Maybe that was the way he’d have to go while out and about. The [Everyman] Power would allow for him to look like his Aneath form, but with the added benefit of not being incredibly horny all the time. Then a thought came to mind, or rather, he recalled the conversation with Avi from- damn, just yesterday morning.
He quickly entered the little office space in his mind and turned on the computer. A few clicks later and he was in the folder that Avi had directed him to, but wasn’t quite sure what he needed to do from there.
The executable file was right there, but the “README” file had called to him first. From the explanation given by Altaea, there were certain prerequisites he needed to accomplish before he could enter the final stage, as it were. The final “evolution” of his becoming like Altaea.
The “fusion” of each of his forms could already be done. It would just be temporary, though. From what he understood, he would have about three minutes worth of “fusion time” until he was able to get stronger. Which meant going up in Tiers; specifically strengthening his Psionic reserves and being able to cultivate Tier 4 Mana.
Tier 4 Mana, also known as Immortal Qi because of its properties, was essential according to Altaea. From what Altaea had left in his databanks, Immortal Qi was the closest thing to Divine Mana that this realm had. And it was when Altaea had risen to the ranks of the divine that she’d finally been able to permanently fuse her various forms into one.
She could also choose to shift into an individual form is she wanted to, but she’d rarely seen the need to do so.
That all said, how the hell did Altaea know about Immortal Qi when she’d initially created him? For that matter, how had Avi known about the directories when he hadn’t? Had Altaea somehow managed to add more information to his mind while he was waiting to be reborn? Was that the reason why [Astral Seed] hadn’t worked properly?
His mind whirled about, picking up thoughts and spinning them about before tossing them out again to then pick up yet other thoughts, continuing the process before he was interrupted.
Kinkade: Ding! Been an hour! Also, you wouldn’t believe how many Tier 4 Crystals we brought in from this latest auction!
Joram: Well, isn’t that convenient?
Kinkade: Ah, I see. Well, we’ll still need to wait until Tier 7 before we can get to that.
Joram: Yes, but having a stockpile of Tier 4 Crystals will be very useful. Oh, that’s also good news. I’m glad that Layla is treating us so well. We’ll be able to get even more Tier 4 Crystals in the future!
Kinkade: Especially if the number of High Elans will be increasing.
Joram: We both know that Avi is the only other person who’s going to go through the full process.
Kinkade: Just wanted you to consciously admit that to yourself, Prime.
Joram: Every time you call me that, I feel like I need to start speaking like Peter Cullen.
Kinkade: There are eminently worse people to sound like, you know. Like the English voice dubs for almost every male in an anime, ever.
Joram: Amen to that.
Joram sighed as he nodded to himself. He began looking through the requirements to get all of his forms into one, and sighed again. It was almost too easy.
Yes, he somehow needed to cultivate to the 7th Tier, which shouldn’t prove to be exceptionally difficult. But with his current physiological issues, he really would have to be in his High Elan form disguised as his Aneath form. Ridiculous.
Joram looked down at himself and sighed. At least he wouldn’t have to worry about getting changed seeing as how he was already naked. With a thought, he became his High Elan self. Then with another thought, he manifested [Everyman] with the augments needed to allow for him to exactly replicate his Aneath self’s looks and scent.
Yes, scent. You never knew when someone weird would show up.
He quickly dressed then reviewed how he looked again in his sphere of perception. Sure enough, replicating the face you saw every day was easy enough.
As for messing around with the fusion function, he’d leave that off for a while. Maybe even until he reached Tier 7. Or if there was an emergency….
Kinkade: Yes, the functionality that doesn’t come until you use the combined form for the first time.
Joram: How likely would it be that we would desperately need the deflection bonus derived from my charisma? Or that I’d need to punch a ghost?
Kinkade: Prime?
Joram: … what?
Kinkade: Did you just jynx us?
Joram: Crap.
So it was that Joram used the fusion function for the first time.
It was an odd sensation to say the least. The expanded senses that he’d enjoyed as a High Elan, then in his Planar form, were now all brought together giving him an instant headache as he tried to process everything at once.
After a minute of just focussing on his breathing, he was once again able to open his eyes a hair and look around a bit. Details that his Aneath form could see because of its cultivation and body refinement were enhanced further by his Planar and High Elans selves.
The darkvision provided by his other two forms allowed him to see every detail of the room as though everything was perfectly illuminated. The same increase in sensitivity applied to the rest of his physical senses as well, but only needed another minute to get used to.
What he found eminently amusing was his hair.
It had acquired the same colour scheme as Altaea’s and Avi’s had. That said, the colours were definitely different. The roots of his hair were now a very dark indigo. That then faded to a very dark purple-brown colour that had more purple than brown to it. Which then transitioned to a deep red at the tips. As much as he hated making the comparison, it reminded him of blood. Or maybe a Merlot.
That last one was honestly a stretch as he’d never been a drinker and hadn’t paid that much attention to colour wheels over the years.
Then there were his wings. Instead of the dark brown to ruby colour gradient from before, they now took the same colours as his hair. Same pattern too. At least they were still that weird hard light/hologram… stuff. He could pass his hand through his wings, but felt a weird resistance when he did.
Joram shrugged as it really didn’t matter. There was almost no way that he’d need to use his wings these days. Especially in the Academy.
With one last inspection of his form, he released the fusion and became his High Elan self again. Then had to once again manifest [Everyman] as it had somehow lapsed when he’d fused.
“Not that it matters,” he said, shaking his head as he looked over to the clock on the wall. “Time to get going.”
Joram shifted back to his living room at the Academy and took a quick peek with his perception to see if anyone was around. Clear.
He then reached over and stored the grand piano and bench away in his Realm’s storage before heading to the front door and then out.
It didn’t take long to get to the street Starfall was located on. What would probably take him a while was the respectable line leading all the way from Dawn Star Café to where he was at the end of the block. Well, that was if he wanted to stay in line like everyone else. He did not.
He made his way past the excited queue, getting some looks as he passed them by. What surprised him more than a little was that the line wasn’t primarily comprised of students. No, most of them seemed to be the “older” crowd, as it were. The few students he spotted had that air of maturity a person got as they aged, even though they still looked to be around twenty years old.
Once he arrived, he made his way into Starfall and spotted Bai Lian coming out of the kitchen with a heavily laden tray of confections. She spotted him a second later and blinked, then coloured slightly before hurrying on to deliver her load.
Even though he’d seen both her and Mo Yu in their maid uniforms before, he was struck by just how cute she looked in it. Especially when she’d blushed.
He stopped dead, causing someone to curse him as they nearly walked into him on their way by. He ignored the guy, too shocked by what had just gone through his head.
What the hell?! Wasn’t that supposed to get fixed?
‘Avi? Are you in the back or at Dawn Star?’ He quickly sent, suddenly not wanting to stay around people.
‘Dawn Star. Are you here? I’ll send someone out for you,’ she sent, sounding distracted.
Joram stepped over to the doors that connected the two establishments and only had to wait half a minute before someone opened the door and practically hauled him inside.
He looked at the young man who’d grabbed him and nearly grunted in surprise. He was dressed like any other server he’d seen in semi-formal dining establishments. He was dressed in pants that were almost black, with matching shoes and belt. His top was an off-white linen, long sleeved lace-up shirt under a smart vest that matched his pants.
Looking around more, he saw that the rest of the staff were garbed the same, though the women obviously had uniforms cut for women. Just in the same style. It was, quite frankly, really good.
“Joram!” Alicia called to him from over by where the band would play.
Suddenly very nervous again, he quickly made his way over.
‘I’m not sure if I’m good to be out and about in public right now,’ he sent to her as he physically spoke to her to cover the telepathic conversation. “Hello Alicia! Things are looking great!”
‘What’s wrong? Are the belts not working?’ She sent with more then just a little bit of flirtatious in there. “Thanks! We’re almost ready to open the doors,” she said out loud, then motioned to the open space behind her. “Are you ready to play us a few songs?”
He looked her in the eye, trying not to panic. Then such warmth and reassurance flowed through the Network to him from Avi that his heart calmed, and his breathing evened out. As his blood pressure slowly dropped again, he was even able to crack a genuine grin.
“Yeah, just give me a couple of minutes,” he said, looking again to the stage.
Alicia beamed a smile at him before slapping him on the shoulder and taking off.
He’d already taken two steps toward the low stage, practically just a raised portion of the floor that he only needed to take one large step to get up on, when it hit him.
He hadn’t felt anything from Alicia when she’d touched him. He quickly pinged her and found that she wasn’t even close to him. He turned then, and used his developing “soul sight” (*better name still in development*). There were a variety of souls present, from on the “normal” end of the spectrum of non-cultivators to much brighter ones of higher Tiered cultivators.
Sure enough, Alicia didn’t register properly, only giving off a faint… fuzz.
‘You damned coward!’ He yelled through the Network at her.