***Tirnanog, Mount Aerie***
***Magnus***
Astra was... eating...
Three n's worth of food, in fact
So I decided to make myself scarce.
My wife's appetite had increased to supernatural levels. The sa was the case for her size, but I was far too smart to even hint I had noticed or that it bothered . Every ti my tongue threatened to escape the control of my brain, all of my spidey senses tingled thanks to Precognition.
I knew sothing horrible would happen if I wagged my tongue, so I said nothing.
Unfortunately for Astra, her ability to pack away what the family servants sacrificed on the altar of her dinner plate had not undergone the sa transformation.
It would take her so ti to satiate herself.
I figured sitting next to her, watching her while she ate and ate, would pose an entirely different dilemma once she beca aware of the situation.
In a way, I was protecting her by not being at her side.
It wasn't like I didn't need so ti for myself anyway. I needed to cool down, order my thoughts, and get my head straight.
My reaction to seeing Iv with Hector had opened a ntal abyss I hadn't been prepared for. I liked to think of myself as a rational person, so the incident bothered more than I wanted to admit.
Thankfully, Astra was there to prevent the worst.
I blew all my safety fuses when I saw Iv in that man's embrace. The re idea still didn't sit right with . If my partner hadn't forcefully ended the fight, I would have killed the guy.
And then what?
Should we have gone back to Etan and Teresa and brought them the news of another diplomatic fiasco? That would have been bad catastrophic even.
I never thought it possible for to flip out in such a way. I was the calm and rational type, but ever since I arrived here on Tirnanog, I was beginning to slip.
It was a problem.
Unfortunately, I didn't believe so mutation was at fault. No.
Thinking back, I believe my slip-ups began when I found Ivona hale enough to reconnect with her. Finding her was like finding a hope I thought lost. Hope that everything I did to get here was worth sothing. That I could save the few family mbers I had left.
Astra was another reason. We had joined forces for all the wrong reasons, but I couldn't deny I had fallen for the woman hard. Even if I lost Iv, I couldn't consider myself alone anymore.
Before this, I mostly cared about myself. My revenge was my sole driving force. The destruction I left in my wake was an unavoidable consequence. Now my deeds no longer had consequences for only and my enemies.
I chewed on my inner cheek while I tried to wrangle the knot of conflicting emotions which had ford inside my chest. On so level, I had gotten used to taking the shortest path to achieve my goals.
Like throwing that bastard off the elevator.
But the shortest path was no longer the best.
I was still a little miffed at how Thalia had handled things. She tried to influence my mind! I should have hit her for that alone. A warning would have been nice instead of giving the cold bucket when I opened that door!
But she probably knew I wasn't thinking straight when I realized sothing was off with Iv. There was no doubt. I would have vented my frustrations first on Thalia and then on Hector.
But she was hardly the only person to bla. Teresa, Sienna, and Thalia, any of them could have approached with their convoluted plan to get Iv and Hector together and draw the Mora to our side. But no, they first wanted to see how things went. Damn, even Iv could have told that she had developed romantic feelings for soone.
Then again, hadn't she ntioned making a friend in the hospital?
I ruffled my hair. Now I was frustrated that I hadn't paid more attention to her earlier!
Even if it went against my sensibilities, Iv was her own person and as safe as she could be in this world.
Maybe having her hook up with Hector was the best possible outco? If the partnering went through, she would be a strong candidate for a leadership position, an elder even. Also, if she beca Hector's partner it would be unlikely for her to run off in search of Evanne and get herself killed.
Despite all my misgivings, I didn't take Hector to be the type who would allow his wife to throw herself into danger.
But who was I to judge? I t Hector twice, gaining one very bad impression of him and one even worse...
I sighed.
No. I had to be honest with myself.
Hector hadn't done so bad in that second encounter. It was who looked like a mad dog.
Though, it still grated on that the people in this world were fine with having teenagers hook up with each other. When Astra took aside for 'the talk', she explained how her parents began hopeful introductions between her and Hector when she was fifteen!
At least it looked like, while not exactly climbing barricades at the suggestion, people still had so lingering Earth-sensibilities regarding such matters. While it was encouraged among clanners, they weren't exactly thrilled about such pairings. And as one could see in Astra's case, the society as a whole wasn't gone far enough to force her into a partnership like in dieval tis.
But no matter the redeeming points, such a thing was still just wrong to !
I huffed.
It was unlikely for to be able to change a few hundred years of cultural developnt.
My personal feelings on the matter aside, from a purely rational point of view, I had to admit they were... right.
They needed the children.
I blinked and returned from my silent musings. My aimless wanderings had brought into the estate's gardens. It was the first ti for to spend so ti in here. Teresa had shown through once, but that was all.
The garden was a big do with a base area of half a football field. The plants were a random selection of what I had seen when Astra took on a hunt into the Belly. It was more like one of these miniature biotope gardens with winding paths leading the visitors to points of interest. In between, there so open spaces to relax, maybe even do so training.
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I sighed and went to sit on a stone bench to relax and have my brain cool off. Thinking about shit like this just made it worse.
The one thing I really missed from Earth were movies. Sothing to just watch and switch off your brain and to forget about the idiocies of life.
That worked for a little less than a minute before my eyes found the inscriptions on the far side of the garden's walls.
I stood up and followed the walkway leading to the wall which was so kind of rembrance monunt.
Soone had spent a great deal of work with engraving a ti genealogy. The more recent parts were well maintained, but the further one went back, the more moss and cave ferns covered the inscriptions.
I began with the oldest section.
3392. Aerie City is founded, I read aloud.
501 years before I was born one of my sub-identities supplied helpfully.
I belatedly realized that Aerie must have been one of the first colonies to be founded after Earth created the stable connection to Tirnanog.
I skipped a few decades' worths of entries as I followed the walkway which led along the wall. The entries were boring and benign enough, ntioning things like the developnt of the central cavern.
Eight decades later, there was a sudden shift in the artistry of the engraving which was why I paid closer attention. Before, the entries had been machined into the stone. Now, it looked like soone had used a pick to scratch a ssage. The lack of expertise with which it was done was painfully obvious.
'3475. Earth closed the gate! The systems are down! It is dark. We are on our own.'
I stared at the ssage from the past and wondered what the first colonists must have felt when Earth's governnt suddenly cut their lifeline to turn them into an experint. Everything must have run on Earth's technology. Did the colony's systems shut down when Earth terminated computer support? Did the colonists already cultivate the glowing plants, or did the lights simply wink out?
Back then, they wouldn't have had any of today's body enhancents. Normal humans, suddenly bar their technology.
My eyes drifted to the spiky grass next to the walkway. Nowadays, I would simply cover myself in a protective layer of filants and the grass would bend beneath my feet. When I first arrived on Tirnanog, the spikegrass would have turned into a pincushion.
For the baseline humans of Aerie City, the closing of the gate must have been a death sentence.
I drew a deep breath and followed the walkway.
The ssages turned increasingly desperate until they spoke of new arrivals with body enhancents mutations. From there, the demonstrated skill with the engravings improved again although the style had changed.
'3568. Harold Frost(3629 k.i.a.) and Nina Frost(3678 d.t.m.), Founding Elders of the Twelfth Strata!'
I pondered over the inscription's aning and compared it to later entries. Supposedly, Harold Frost and Nina Frost had taken the position of elders in 3568 and Harald was killed in action in 3629, while Nina had suffered... death to mutation? In 3678?
Going down the path, I found out that a new pair of elders would take over the torch as soon as a mber of the previous elder pair died, which was 3629 in the case of Harold's and Nina's successors. It looked like losing one's partner automatically retired the remaining elder.
Once I had puzzled it out, I began skipping the nas which held no deeper aning to . What was interesting though, was that aside from 'k.i.a.', 'd.t.m.' was the highest reason for deaths. There were a few 'r.i.p.', but they could be neglected compared to the other two.
I assud so people had gotten the elder position without a starfish mutation and died to old age. It would be interesting to know whether it was a willing choice for so. Forsaking the starfish mutation ant giving up potential immortality, but it freed up a mutation slot for sothing more powerful.
I knew that only a few hundred people could even hope to reach the power level of a juggernaut. And I had seen how the average hunter struggled with things like the ratkin. So, at least for the general population, choosing more power might be the right move.
Another interesting thing I found was that there was always a line joining the two previous elders and pointing towards one of the new ones, accompanied by either a 'b.' or an 'a.', which ant 'birth' and 'adoption' I supposed.
The Frosts had a history of simply adopting suitable successors for their family if they couldn't conceive one the normal way.
If I understood correctly, then the adoptions outweighed births with six in ten!
It also looked like the normal half-life of an elder wasn't all that long. Many lost the position within one or two decades, while so held out far longer.
I supposed the more powerful they were, the higher the survival chances.
Then I almost skipped over sothing important, so I took a step back, not believing my eyes.
I looked around the garden to make sure I was alone before I ripped a spikegrass stem from the ground and used it to scratch away the moss.
'3694. Dominic Frost(3777 k.i.a.) and Mary Frost(_________), Elders of the Twelfth Strata!'
No way, I whispered. The crone is 232!
Older, I had to remind myself. These dates docunted when the new elders took over, not when they were born. Ah, and I had to consider that not just anyone would beco elder. You had to be powerful, influential, and knowledgeable.
Mary forewent a few 'great, great, great' when she introduced herself as Teresa's great grandmother.
It was probably safe to assu that Mary had already more than a few decades on her back when she took the position.
I scratched my neck while I regarded the na and pictured the person it stood for. It was a little morbid to have your na already inscribed on a tombstone before the world was finished with you.
Maybe I would be a little more respectful the next ti I t her.
The crone outlived four generations of elders, one of them she had personally adopted.
I finally reached more recent history where soone had found it noteworthy to docunt a 'War Of The Six Clans 3878-3890'.
Okay... note to self... these people didn't fuck around when they decided to kill each other. To fight twelve years of war under survival conditions was insane.
Maybe they didn't go all out with the winter posing an obstacle? Then again, humanity proved again and again how insane we are.
We fight and kill each other while the world tries to kill us and yet we thrive contrary to all obstacles. Going by logic alone, we should be dead ten tis over.
I was already told about this, but seeing this monunt made it more real.
The Frosts alone burned four elders within one decade of war.
Julian reigned with Carrey until 3884. They had a natural birth, Elsie, who took over with Nielsen. Also, both were killed in action.
Their natural daughter Teresa followed with Etan Frost in 3888. Which ant they had seen to the end of the war likely played a huge role in it.
I humd while I had my sub-identities juggle the numbers. I had been exiled in 3926. If I wasn't completely off the track, then Astra arrived on Tirnanog in 3913, twenty-five years after the clan war ended.
And Etan said it took a long ti for the following unrest to cool down and for the clans to establish the current status quo.
Maybe the five remaining clans had so final peace talks when Astra was dropped into the pond at Teresa's and Etan's feet.
I had asked myself how two elders would be allowed into the Old Camp with all the restrictions going on.
Etan had shown the official peace treaty which prohibited the clans from sending paired warriors to the Old Camp. It was furthermore a no-fly zone for airships and the treaty regulated the distribution of exiles, supposedly ensuring that everyone got a piece of the pie so that nobody could gain a population advantage over the others.
I sighed and dropped the grass stem before I turned arou-
I stumbled away from the person who wasn't supposed to be there while inhaling air and gurgling in surprise. It was one of those monts when you desired to inhale in surprise and shriek at the sa ti.
Goodgod! Holy. Fuck. Don'tsneakuponlikethat! It was embarrassing, especially since I thought of myself as a manly man, but there were simply surprises in life which warranted almost wetting your pants.
This was one such case.
Teresa crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. I am sorry?
At least try to sound genuine when you are apologizing! I reached for my heart which had all but stopped when I found my mother in law standing behind . How the hell did she sneak up on ? I was completely unaware of her presence.
It's hardly my fault when you have your head in the clouds, Teresa replied. But I am here to apologize. Astra told that you were very upset when you ran into Hector and Ivona.
I was. I glared at her. Still am.
Teresa nodded and looked at least sowhat guilty. It's understandable. My only excuse is that I wasn't aware of how far Iv had taken her investnt in Hector. Sienna and I had Thalia facilitate a eting in the hope of nding the relationship between us and the Moras. It would solve many problems. I intended to inform you as soon as Iv had confird her willingness. For all I knew, the two would be like fire and ice and nothing would co of it. I-
She paused before she continued, Didn't want to light the stove before I knew there was enough wood to burn.
So bad luck? I ran into them prematurely? I fake-smiled at my mother-in-law.
I already said that I am sorry, Teresa replied sowhat primly. I am not a bad person. I had Thalia and Sienna monitor the situation and I talked with Iv about it after her first encounter with Hector went well. When I adopted Iv, I fully ant for you and her to be a part of this family. I take care of mine.
But being a part of this family cos with certain responsibilities, I added what she had left out.
It's good that you understand.
We held eye contact for a long ti.
Okay, I admitted.
Everything had a price and it felt like Teresa was genuine. I forgive you if it's true that you were watching Iv, but am still angry. If Hector hurts my sister in any way, I will punch his head off.
Teresa tilted her head. Fine. So we are good?
It would be better if I would get Evanne back too, I pointed out which was admittedly a little childish. But we are good.
Teresa nodded. Then let's use tomorrow to lean a little on all the levers we've set in place.
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