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Toward the end of my lifetime as an Enhanced Human, I came with great difficulty to value the part of me that fit the ‘Human’ half of that description. That fact differentiated me from the great majority of my kind. A society that used ‘defective’ infants such as myself as raw material for human-shaped machinery offered no particular incentive for us to develop human emotions and sensibilities, after all.
While the foundation for that achievement lay in the training from my foster mother, the childcare supervisor responsible for my upbringing, I readily admit that the majority of the credit went to the most human part of my life, my beloved wife Ran-zi. The very thought of her as ‘my wife’ instead of an inexplicable human who had convinced me to become her partner (as I had seen her for most of my marriage), was only achieved near the end of my lifespan, not long before the disaster in which I cast away my life to protect her, our baby, and the rest of the colony’s residents.
However, the calm analyst side that my wife called ‘my handsome calculator’ had his uses too. Power systems technicians manage intricate networks by plugging directly into them through artificial nerveware, a feat requiring immense amounts of mathematics coupled with finely-tuned, well-practiced habits. Using an example from Robert Stewart’s life, imagine a highly-ranked esports competitor playing a video game, or a world-class fighter pilot operating his craft.
I could integrate the knowledge from Senhion that Tiana had managed to unearth from ancient memories much more handily than she or any other incarnation not simply because of my childhood spiritual training (as she assumed) but because it, frankly, resembled the job I had done in life to a remarkable degree. Yes, my foster mother’s spiritual training gave me the tools, but my experience gave me a practiced hand.
For that reason, I could now perform the task I was about to do, rather than merely handing control over to Kwelabi as she had planned. I had plenty of time to think while I handled it, since it required little conscious processing, so I had done considerable analysis of the situation as well. As the end of that hour approached, I began taking the actions I had chosen as a result.
After making sure to carefully review the method to read the mental notes I had made– I needed to make that method a fresh memory so that she would be able to use those notes– I began drawing upon the spiritual energy in our vessel to grow our mental space once more.
I was creating space for a second incarnation. I first summoned Kwelabi, the one to whom Tiana wanted me to hand control, because I wanted him to review and approve my decision to change the plan.
I received no response when I did so, merely the awareness that he had immediately handed his awareness over to Sirth, whom I had chosen instead. In my memory, I discovered the amused thought as he did so that I should have known better. We were not different people, so naturally he understood and ‘approved’.
I don’t think I’m able to see things that way, but it seems that’s how Kwelabi approached this odd condition in which our minds now exist.
Sirth set to work immediately with the task I needed her for, reconnecting with the herd of Wind spirits who were remaining on standby in the area.
– They have been keeping watch. That witch is still patrolling, trying to find the fairy girl. Doesn’t look like she has any sense of where to look.
I nodded, then requested for her to take charge of the [Blood Sigil]. I had been keeping an eye on it, but only to the extent of watching out for the possibility of it turning this direction.
As I was preparing for my next move, a forceful thought came back from her.
— Blood and thunder, boy! The Wind spirits caught a conversation the princess needs to hear immediately!
A bit alarmed by her tone, I put aside my plan and reviewed the memories immediately. It wasn’t in the local language, but the other voice in the conversation sounded hideous and dark, like something whispering from the grave, and I recognized enough words to know it was Regari, the common language on the Demonic Plains. I quickly set up a mental auditory recording and had Sirth acquire a better quality playback from the memory of the [Blood Sigil], committing every word into a memory as lucid as a digital recording.
Even if she did hear it, Tiana wouldn’t understand it. Sirth already knew that, but I could feel in her memory her expectation that ‘the princess’ would be able to do something with it.
I couldn’t deny that expectation, but it required more than merely ‘Tiana’. It needed the expanded version of her which Gaia dubbed ‘Little Sen’. So I expanded our mental space even further, drawing additional spiritual energy in from our vessel, and told Sirth to relinquish her space as well. At which point, we became her…
… and I came back to awareness smiling at how far from my plan my previous incarnations had deviated. Of course, I knew and understood their reasoning, so it was fine.
Daq, like Gaia, calls this awareness ‘Little Sen’. In this state, I am certainly who I become upon entering Sky Ocean, but in my heart, I am still the same Tiana. I do admit, though, that I am somewhat different than in Huade’s normal environment.
I listened to the conversation Daq had recorded, while remaining a little mystified that one of the Wind spirits had willingly strayed close enough to a dangerous demon like Trisiagga to hear it. My memory dished up the answer as soon as I considered it though. It was an arrangement that Sirth and Lucy had made together, using an unusually brave spirit who agreed for a tidy profit that Durandal had served up. These guys…
The reason Sirth had become alarmed was clear. Trisiagga conversed with a disembodied voice– in other words, a long-distance communication spell of some sort– and many words in the conversation had sounded distinctly like names well-known to me. I could hear ‘Serera’, ‘Owen’ and ‘Gerald’ multiple times, and at one point, the name ‘Roderick’.
As Daq had noted, all the words were in Regari, and the other voice sounded quite disturbing. But more important than the tone quality was the name by which Trisiagga kept addressing that voice.
“Dagtshibat’durash.“
Lord Durash.
She had mentioned two ‘Lords’ in the past, and one of them, Zagolig, was likely the Archdemon I met in Ilim Below.
The other had been ‘Lord Durash’.
It was frustrating, even though Sirth and Daq had anticipated it, that I could not understand any more of the conversation. As they also anticipated though, I hit upon a method to decode it.
Daq had been keeping an eye on the girl resting to my right through spiritual sense. She was stable, but she still had a wound in need of attention. Before I undertook my next step, which might exhaust me again, I decided to take care of it.
I moved over to her and put my hand on her side, just south of the band of her cuirass, with my fingers resting on her back. She opened her eyes and grew a little smirk as her own slipped up to stroke my arm.
“This isn’t exactly a private place, My Lady, but I suppose that need not stop us.”
“Hush,” I chided her as I summoned Holy mana. “What happened to being raised by a conservative father?”
As her hand slipped up to my shoulder and then down so that her fingertips could trace the sideboob exposure Mother had insisted upon, she giggled and responded, “I never said I was a virgin. I just said I wasn’t as active as others. By the way, did I mention I already figured out how the fastening for your cuirass works?”
Upon those words, her fingers reached said buckle, joining the bra cup and backstrap, and cleverly popped it loose. My cuirass dropped open as far as the remaining straps would allow, leaving sufficient room for her hand to roam underneath.
My fairy libido had slowly worn down the original Tiana’s resistance, and in my expanded state, that resistance was nowhere as strong as usual, but that wasn’t why I delayed the [Healing] spell. The fact was, I was honestly wondering whether this girl was seriously attempting to seduce me in her condition.
She surely could feel the problem with her lung. Although I had closed the surface wound early, it was still punctured, and gradually collapsing. She should be feeling pain, having problems breathing, and experiencing various other issues. So why was she happily kneading with my nipple with her fingers instead of worrying about it?
I bent down, intending to give her cheek a kiss before telling her to stop, but she turned her head at the last moment and turned it into a kiss on the lips while her hand found the other breast. I didn’t find it objectionable, so I chose to allow it, even letting her escalate to open-mouth contact as she continued groping me. As our tongues intertwined and her other hand slipped behind my head, I tasted a bit of fairy blood in her mouth, probably brought up from her lung during her occasional coughing. It teased my vampire instincts even though the blood would be useless to me.
Deciding I had allowed her to go far enough, I backed away. My curiosity was satisfied, and I was convinced. She really was serious, despite her health and the circumstances.
“You are too wounded for this, silly girl,” I told her while mentally casting [Healing], then I let it pour into her.
“Gaaaaaaah!” she yelled as the torrent flooded her midsection. I didn’t hold back. Like an elve, a fairy requires a lot of power for [Healing] to work.
I had made a slight tactical error, though. When the fire hit her, she clenched her hand. Fortunately, she let go immediately, but I was plenty sore there, now. Thus, she inadvertently managed a small measure of revenge.
I let the magic spread throughout her body, looking for anything else I had missed. As it turned out, the lungs and various other torn tissues in the chest were the limit of the problem.
When I let the magic end, she had tears in her eyes.
“That was mean!” she protested.
I gave her a throaty chuckle. “I had to defend my chastity, My Lady.”
“Chastity?” she asked, her voice rising in disbelief. “You, the one who spent last night in a whorehouse?”
“I went there for blood,” I told her as I corralled the open parts of my cuirass and worked to get them properly buckled again. “I’m still a maiden.”
She blinked, then responded, “Wait, what? Seriously?”
“I’m betrothed to a human,” I told her. “My fiancé is Prince Gerald’s younger brother. I’m trying to follow human custom and remain chaste until marriage out of respect to his father the king.”
Okay, that’s not my actual reason, but I couldn’t explain that I simply still can’t see my current age, still a couple months shy of sixteen, as old enough for sex. The Robert is strong in this one.
She smiled and stroked my arm once more. “So, after marriage, I can come looking for you?”
I rolled my eyes, then admitted, “My policy will probably change at some point after marriage.”
After all, in order to have a human heir, since my child was guaranteed to be an Elder and therefore a vampire, Rod would have to take a concubine. Besides, with my inclinations, I could never give him a satisfactory love life anyway. But in order to get my permission, I had already decided he would have to accept that I would play with my Servants or other blood donors if he wanted a peaceful marriage.
Whether I would extend that policy to other fairies… I hadn’t decided yet.
I told her, “The demonic mana from that demon’s weapon left some miasma inside you. I need to use [Purification] on you, now.”
Her eyes grew, and I giggled. I added, “I’ll be gentle this time.”
“Please,” she answered in a meek tone.
