“What do you mean you aren’t coming?” Wendy glared at Scruff as the Gardener fidgeted anxiously. “You have to come with us!”

“I want to,” Scruff said tensely, “But I have to keep an eye on my new creation. Do you have any idea how big it is? How much damage it could do?”

“Like you ever cared about that!” Wendy snapped. “You know Dad is going to have to go fight the cult. We are going with him. All of us.”

“I can’t,” Scruff said. “I want to, I do. But I have to stay here. It needs me, Wendy.”

“And I don’t?” Wendy asked. Her temper was temporarily squashed by the pain of being separated from the woman she loved. It wasn’t fair that she was coming second to a bloody overgrown succulent. That might not have been fair to think, but Wendy wasn’t feeling very reasonable at the moment. On the contrary. The fury rose again, and she opened her mouth to say something she knew she would regret but couldn’t stop herself. “You’re ju–”

“Neither of you is coming.” Bert’s voice interrupted her.

“What the fuck?” Wendy whirled on her father; seeing him looking calm and relaxed made her even more furious. Plus, she could actually get angry at him.

“Neither of you are coming. Neither is Gavin, Lyla, or the orcs, for that matter. You are staying here.” Bert said evenly. “I was going to talk to everyone later, but I don’t want you two arguing over nothing.”

“Sick of having kids already?” Wendy snapped, wincing internally even as she said it.

“No!” Bert said, looking hurt. “I just want to keep you safe.”

“I can take care of myself!” Wendy and Scruff both yelled. Wendy grinned at her girlfriend. This felt better. The two of them against someone else. She didn’t like it when they argued.

“Yes, you can,” Bert said, suddenly looking tired. “But I need someone to look after everyone else. You two are it.”

Wendy opened her mouth to scream at him again but felt Scruff grab her and hold her mouth shut. RUDE!

“Let him talk, Wendy,” Scruff said with a grin.

Wendy wanted to stay mad… but it felt nice being held close to her like that. Wendy’s mind started to wander to other things, as it always did when she got angry.

No! Focus! She mentally slapped herself. Angry Wendy! Horny Wendy, later!

“Mmmpf!” She snarled through Scruff’s hand.

“I know, but do you think that Gavin and Lyra can handle things on their own?” Bert smiled at her as she struggled.

“Why do they need to handle things?” Scruff asked, irritatingly calm and rational.

“You think we were given this land for fun?” Bert asked Scruff. “I bet Dagon has a few surprises left to go. I want someone who can make the hard choices,” He nodded to Scruff, “And someone who can kill if the need arises,” He nodded at Wendy.

Rude! She was hardly an indiscriminate killer.

“Rose is staying as well since she seems to have made a bit of a splash in the local business markets.” Bert went on. “The point is, you two will be in charge here while we are gone.”

“Wait?” Wendy wriggled free of Scruff. “In charge?”

“I thought you might like that bit,” Bert laughed. “You and Scruff will be the official heads of the settlement.”

“You should have started with that!” Wendy complained. “At least we can actually be useful.”

“Scruff will handle the plants, her new friend, and the farming,” Bert said. “Wendy, you will be in charge of dealing with any troublemakers, as well as the demon forces here.” He tossed her a small carved horn. “You can summon a hundred demons to man this place with that. I want you to do it so they see you as their ONLY commander. You will have to pay in mana, but it’s really cheap.”

“I get my own demons?” Wendy asked, snatching the horn out of the air with a grin.

“Yes, you get your own demons,” Bert laughed. “And gods help us all.”

Endy stuck her tongue out at him, her anger forgotten as she imagined herself as the head of a demonic horde. “I suggest you let Rose handle the businesses and traders, but help her out if she gets stuck, okay?”

It wasn’t until he had already left that Wendy remembered she had been trying to argue against all this.

On the other hand… demon army!

=================

Bert left the girls to sort things out and headed for his next stop, telling Bud what he had planned. Bud was very attached to his orcs, so he might have a more challenging time with this one than he did with the girls. Scruff had been a lock to stay the moment she created that abyssal horror of a creature he was trying very hard to forget was beneath the Waystation right at this moment. Wendy was simply a matter of choosing the right moment to mention the demons.

Wondering how he was doing as a father, Bert was distracted by the line of demons carrying distilling supplies. He followed the line back to the source and found a grinning vampire directing traffic from a perch in the corner of the distillery.

“Dee?” He called.

“Hey, Bert!” She waived excitedly. “I thought you had forgotten about our chat!”

Realizing he had, Bert winced internally and kept his mouth shut. He had never been much of a lair. He waved to the line of busy demons instead.

“Oh, yeah,” She blurred down to him. “I’m moving into the distillery here if you don’t mind?”

“No problem,” Bert figured it made sense, in a way. “Just don’t take all the alcohol with you, okay?”

“I’m not interested in alcohol,” Dee said with a wide smile. “I made something better! Can we go somewhere to chat in private?”

“Sure, follow me.” Bert led her up to the staff-only dining area and gestured for her to take a seat. “So, what’s this big discovery?”

“Well,” Dee grinned at him, fangs showing prominently. He was sure there were less of them last time, but perhaps she had been hiding them back then?

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“Do you remember what I told you about how vampires were an imperfect race?” She continued. “In case you forgot, we are weaker than expected, mostly because our race is an in-between one. Like we were something before and are halfway to something better, but we aren’t quite there yet.”

Bert nodded as it seemed the thing to do.

“Well, we have been trying to complete the shift for generations now,” Dee said with a hint of desperation in her voice. “Several combinations of blood and magic have started smaller evolutions, but they all stopped short of a true species.” She took a deep breath, “Well, I got a lot of Watcher blood in me, and it seemed to be doing something, so I figured I could distill the blood I had left over into a more potent version.”

Bert nodded again, still wholly lost but trying gamely to keep up. He did have one question, though… “I thought you drank her blood?”

“I did,” Dee said proudly, “But I also spat some into vials for later. It’s a vampire thing.”

“Okay, gross. Go on,” Bert said with a tentative smile.

“Well, I decided since I had so much mana running around me, I could try and infuse the Watcher blood with that. It didn’t work great, but it gave me an idea.” She looked around and whispered. “Vampire blood can store huge amounts of mana. It’s how we are able to move and heal like we do,” She winked. “So! I added the refined Watcher blood to my blood, then infused it with mana and something else….”

“What?” Bert knew a prompt for audience participation when he heard one.

“Essence!” She laughed. “No one ever thought of adding essence before. It’s the impurity that we try to remove from everything. We lacked Earth essence!”

“I take it that worked then?” Bert asked.

“I think so!” Dee said happily. “I’ve grown two extra sets of fangs, one specifically for essence, and I stopped being weaker during the day!”

“Congratulations,” Bert said cautiously. He was wondering if perfecting an apex predator species was about to be added to his list of crimes.

“It gets better!” Dee said with another massive smile. “I can eat food! Real food actually nourishes me now!”

Bert let out a sigh of relief; he hadn’t facilitated the creation of a better vampire after all.

“The best part is I am still changing!” Dee laughed. “Who knows what I’ll end up as!”

And there went his good mood for the day.

His conversation with Bud went a lot better than expected, honestly. He was a protective soul at heart, and he was more interested in keeping them safe than he was in keeping an eye on them. In short, he loved the idea. They both agreed it would be better if they could leave Tim behind as well. The little skeleton was growing in power all the time, but it was still young in their eyes.

“If we could leave him here, I would,” Bert admitted. “Keep the little bugger as safe as possible. The thing is, I don’t think he would take being separated from you well.”

“We’ll have to make sure he is safe inside the Waystation during any fighting,” Bud said sadly. “He won’t like that.”

“Yeah, but with any luck, he will have a long time to get over it,” Bert said. “Wendy isn’t thrilled either, come to that.”

The two unexpected fathers experienced a moment of shared worry and pain that left them both feeling a little better. It wasn’t much, but it was something.

The day wore one, with more than one awkward conversation as he told everyone what he was planning. No one was entirely happy with the situation, and none of them seemed to guess that he wasn’t either. Sure, it was his idea, but that didn’t mean he liked it. Everyone knew you never split the party.

Still, it was the best idea he could come up with on short notice, which all of this was. By far, the worst conversation was with Lily and Rose.

The two sisters were still not quite as close as they had been. Both felt a little awkward around the other. It was understandable, of course. Lily felt like she couldn’t quite trust Rose, having been burned too many times before, while Rose worked her ass off to prove she was not that person anymore and suffered pain whenever her sister didn’t acknowledge that.

Bert could understand how they both felt. He had been the one to let others down when he was younger, and they had never quite gotten over it. In the end, the relationships had fallen apart, leaving them all worse off. Bert was doing his best to make sure that didn’t happen, but he wasn’t a shrink. He had the emotional intelligence to try, but not enough to know what exactly he should be doing.

Bell had argued for keeping them together, no matter what, that would help. Bert had argued that time apart would let them both heal. It was one argument he won, but Bell had made him doubt the decision even more than he already did.

There was also the fact that they needed Lily with them. Her abilities could turn the tide of a battle.

One thing that increasingly became clear as the day came to a close was that leadership sucked ALL THE ASS!

As the sun set, Bert made his way to the palace to let Dagon know they would be leaving in the morning. First thing. Walking there, he had to pass through the new town they had built over the last days. It was already teeming with people, which came as a shock. There were even human guards, all wearing a crude badge showing a broken dagger. His stat-enhanced hearing allowed him to pick up scraps of conversation as he passed. The badge wearers were called The Reclaimed. It seemed they had started off as protection on the jobs Rose organized and had somehow turned into a police force, with her as sheriff.

Whatever she had done, it worked as the houses were filling up quickly, with the shops already showing signs of habitation, and several crafting quarter placements were lit even now.

Why couldn’t he have just been doing this the whole time? Bert wondered what it would be like, just building people places to live and starting towns. It took him less than a minute to realize that would technically make him a colonizer, and the history of that activity was… not good.

He would probably do less damage as a warlord.

In short, Bert arrived at the palace in a bit of a mood, not looking forward to a certain woman’s attitude. The giant doors to the throne room opened –on their own as always– when he approached, and he saw the familiar figure staring over the top of her glasses in the otherwise empty room.

“We finished the town,” Bert told her. “Is Dagon around?”

“KING Dagon. You should refer to him as King Dagon,” Fiona snapped back.

“Not my king,” Bert shrugged. “So?”

“He is not here at the moment,” Fiona sniffed. “I can give him a message.”

“We are leaving in the morning,” Bert said calmly. “Let him know we are going to deal with those cult people now before it gets out of hand.”

“Abandoning your lands already?” Fiona smirked. “I thought you would last longer than that.”

“We are leaving people to run it,” Bert said coldly. “As well as the armed forces required to hold it.”

“Wait!” She laughed. “You are leaving people here and going with only part of your forces to face the ever-growing threat of the cult?” She grinned. “That is suicide!”

“Sorry to disappoint you, but it isn’t.” Bert let himself smile dangerously. “We are the Fae.”

“I’ll keep my fingers crossed,” Fiona said nastily. “Best of luck!”

He paused at the door and turned back to Fiona.

“You know I have to come back just to piss you off, right?” He smirked and left her glowering at his back.

==============

Martha looked over her forces and felt distain tainting her mind. The People did not have disdain. They did not have lesser beings, only ones on the road to a greater perfection. That was the way of The People.

She forced her emotions under control and gave her people a beatific smile. Their blessed mother was here to lead them, to inspire them, and to show them the way.

“My beloved ones!” She called to them, “We have come far and suffered much. None of our troubles can be laid at our own feet, for we have only come to help and to free those too blind to see the truth,” She waited out the cheering. “We have always been a perfect beacon in the night. Unfortunately, beacons attract monsters as easily as they attract the lost. One such as that made their way into our presence and our hearts. Rose, the Defiler, came to destroy us!” She acknowledged the howls and hoots of anger. “She failed, my blessed ones, and now we must purge this evil from the world!”

The crowd roared and stomped feet of wood, stone, earth, and occasionally flesh. They were worked into a rage and an exultant froth now. It was as it should be. Martha took a deep breath and went on….

“The noble Fae, cursed with the chains of humanity from which we have freed ourselves, is even now at her mercy! His kindness and love knows no bounds, and he will surely fall prey to this defiling whore! We shall be his salvation, as we are to this world as a whole. We shall tear the defiler to pieces and free all of the Fae from their fleshy prisons! So says the Mother!”

“So says the Mother!” They chanted back at her. With a nod, she sent them out. Half would go to the nearest town and save those within.

The other half would go into the earth and forests, making their way speedily to where Rose hid and waited for death.

The People would have their revenge, and it would be worth it.

All of it, just to hear Rose scream and beg before she was killed.