I let the revived Lorna out through the {Tree Gate} on the Sky Island. With Nenandil standing on my shoulder holding the lower end of my earlobe and tugging my ear every ti she felt my heart falter, I followed her. The first [Queen] of Windere (post-conquest) decided to wear a pretty everyday dress that so ladies liked when they wanted to stay comfortable at ho or going out for small errands but most royalty would never even consider.
I decided to do sothing I was holding back. I hadn’t picked my level 200 Perk. Now that I knew I would have to play Lorna’s ga of romance, there was no doubt in my mind. Especially when I saw the description had changed a little.
The Leader (capstone): Your smile wins hearts by itself. You gain 10 Charisma and the ability to ignore the lowest reaction modifier in social interaction, once per day for every 10 points of Charisma.
That combined with {Cosmos Within} could literally srize a person. I had a personal dislike for the use of social traits on people but as the saying goes, in love and war… I wasn’t being insecure okay? Even though my ears were hurting from a certain fairy’s kind treatnt.
Mirina, Jocelyn, and the current palace guests were all gathered. Mirina wore the Tabard and Crown of Windere. She bowed while everyone else knelt.
Lorna groaned. “I could swear I turned off my titles. Stand, citizens of Windere,” she stated imperiously. “I’m no longer [Queen]. Your Majesty Mirina, my greetings.”
Mirina’s eyes were full of admiration as if she was seeing a legend. My pride assud she would’ve been desensitized to legends by sleeping with for a decade, but who was I to argue?
Nenandil warned.
she mocked in a very fairy-like way telling at the sa ti I was full of bullshit with the sa ntal vocalization.
“Rosie!” Lorna called .
I instinctively shapeshifted into my forr Eleon self without thinking. Everyone appeared slightly taller in front of . Lorna let out a peal of crystalline laughter.
“I didn’t an it literally but it is such a sight to see how your eyes would’ve been without your disability,” she cooed and picked up. Turning back to address the gathered crowd, she said, “ Greetings everyone. You all know , and I recognize a few of you from the stories Rosie… Haru told . Mirina, Jocelyn, Master Stouthamr, Marisol, thank you for being part of my beloved’s life. I know how much she needed to rely on you, despite claiming to be the most powerful mortal in this world.”
The black-haired tease rubbed my head, put down, and grumbled, “But I’m starving. It’s been six centuries since I last ate sothing. Is there any food available?”
“Nenandil, could you set the tables?” I asked the fairy only so she would leave my ear alone.
The fairy saluted, “Aye aye, skipper! Lorna, could you watch over this little one for ?” She asked the cat-kin and flew to prepare an outdoor evening tea from my item box.
The al with my Queens and family – because let's be honest, everyone here was family – went without a hitch. Lorna satisfied people’s curiosity by answering so questions but she gently cut them off without disturbing the flow of the conversation. She ruled Windere on her own for two centuries, after all. It didn’t seem like a person who didn’t want to live again but I could tell she was faking it. The woman known as “Lorna” had too much baggage to unpack. I liked to think I understood her but that was a lie.
Lorna shook out of my musing with the most mundane question, “Rosie, what’s this dark berry? It’s sweet and ripe, but still has a wild tang.”
I needed a mont to rember, “They’re called Huckleberries. I’ve never found them here in Yznarian, but they’re wild berries that grow on mountains back in my old world. Even with all our knowledge, we couldn’t farm them, they only grow in the wild. People used to line up to earn the right to harvest so from the wild bushes. A few had success to grow them at ho but never really ta them for large-scale production.”
She squealed and kissed the crown of my head. “So exquisite!”
After everyone was seated, my wives and I excused ourselves and withdrew to our bedchambers, forrly belonging to Mirina back when this palace was part of Perenneth. Lorna went hugging the other two. Once the door closed, I placed a privacy barrier and returned to my normal half-kitsune form.
Lorna let her social mask drop and her shoulders slumped. She walked to the bed and threw herself on it, making so unintelligible vocalizations. I knew she was upset and it was probably at being alive again. Which was odd. I knew very well that living creatures liked being alive. Even with the knowledge, I’d live again, it took a lot of willpower and courage to just go and kill myself.
With a frown, I went to the bed, grasping Mirina’s fingers and exchanging a glance with Jocelyn along the way. Her tail was up in the air, flailing wildly. I grabbed it with my own, a gesture she loved. I added more tails until she couldn’t move hers. I moved my hand up her back until I found her head and then ears. I could feel her lt into the sheets.
“I don’t know, Rosie,” she answered without being prompted. “I don’t know what I want.”
I signaled the other two with a hand wave to approach. They climbed on the bed around us. “Tell the first thing off the top of your mind, without overthinking it. If you could do anything now, what would it be?”
“I want to fuck,” she blurted and hissed in annoyance imdiately after. “Nevermind!” She shouted before burying her face and screaming.
If you co across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from . Please report it.
“Too late,” I purred next to her ear. “We’re going to have a fourso. Trust , you’ll love Jocelyn’s satin skin. It’s literally the softest satin I've ever seen.”
She raised her head to glare at . “Did you figure out a way to grow a dick yet? Or are we using those magic dildos of yours?”
On my priority scale, the power to grow dicks was very, very low. Maybe I should reconsider it, but I took a Pódi Deluxe and showed it to her. “Not yet, but I got a new toy. You can’t imagine what it’s capable of. This invention was so powerful you could say this island flies on dildos.”
After we were thoroughly exhausted enjoying each other, the four of us cuddled like a litter of kittens under the duvet.
“I think it’s ti to tell them,” Lorna told .
“I told you,” Jocelyn gloated at Mirina.
The acting [Queen], now an honorary position with limited political powers, swallowed hard as she propped herself on a shoulder, displaying her perfectly round assets. “Are you going away?”
I sighed. Lorna stated solemnly, “Yes.”
Silence.
“I didn’t even want to co back to life. Rosie, Haru convinced ,” the cat-kin confessed. “I don’t regret today, at all. You both have been wonderful to . But this existence, Lorna, the [Prostitute Queen] as they call , is one enveloped by too much sorrow. I lived my lot. I’m tired. But I can’t leave this little one alone. You know that, don’t you?” She asked into Mirina’s eyes. “How much she needs guidance, support, and soone to anchor her. Nenandil does an aweso job but she alone is not enough.”
The fairy chirped from inside . Only I could hear her.
“I do. Did I tell you how she murdered ?” Mirina confessed with moist eyes.
“Please do!” Lorna smiled sympathetically. “She went through a rough patch, this [Death Princess] of ours. So old habits weren’t erased even by death.”
I was pushed to the side while the three discussed . Lorna explained what we’d agreed on and even invited them to join the fold but it wasn’t a surprise when they rejected the offer. I didn’t bla or resent them for wishing to stick to this one life. They were young, less than half a century old. They didn’t share the broader view on existence we had.
There was also one practical aspect on the System side. I was on a crafter build. My Attribute and Resource values were crappy compared to what they could be. I had an upcoming fight that promised to be tough. If I could bank the points I had on {Surpasser} and get a truly fighting build, I would have an edge against the brood-bitch. I had no doubt the continued survival of Windere and several other places depended on my victory.
It could be a ploy by the Gods to make re-roll and then drop the dragon-whore on while I was low level. But this wasn’t a pit fight. I could run away from her and visit demonland or the deepest dungeons for quick levels. But sitting here at the level cap and waiting for her to co was a bad bet. I checked Lorna for any compulsion or tampering with her psyche but found nothing. I never delved deeply into the Mindbender's grimoires and techniques, but they worked on her soul and I’m confident I could spot any KGB shenanigans.
It was ti to move on. I gathered my friends and family, Helger and Rydell on opposite sides, and made my announcent.
“My thanks to everyone. Windere is safe, strong, and able to advance on its own. After being tortured by the dragons, Lorna is back by my side. We decided to go away on a journey. It pains to leave each of you behind but as you know, I’ll have to fight the dragon goddess in the near future. I need to grow stronger, for the sake of Windere, for the sake of our children and grandchildren. I have a confession to make, sothing most of you know.
“I’m not from this world. I was an ordinary man, living a most ordinary life among my peers in a world without magic. For reasons I’m not entirely aware of, I was killed in that world and brought here. Here in this world, I lived from the dawn of ti, living many secret lives. The first one was as a microbe, an insignificant being that lived less than a day. Then I ca back when the Auvani were just a tribe of hunter-gatherers, I was a white rabbit. An ordinary critter on the outside. And from there, I lived as people.
“But the key takeaway is that I am an intruder. An invader to this world. And so is this ruling Pantheon. The Elder Fairies and the Fulgen High Elves rember a ti when there were no Gods and no System in this world. A ti when the Unicorn King ruled the great plains, and magic was free. The Pantheon tried to eliminate with any ans they could find and fail. This is no different.
“I do not consider them my enemies despite not having a tenuous friendship with few of them. I have never, in all these thousands of years, initiated an attack on them. It was always them coming after , or in one case, avenging my mother Rosalinda when I killed the forr God of Monsters. I must go and get stronger for everyone’s sake. Maybe one day they’ll leave alone and this world can find harmony. I’m betting on that.
“If not, we shall see where this ends. What I can assure you is that I won’t give up.”
I kept the actual goodbyes brief. A few hugs, a few promises, a few ntos from my item box. I gave Helger the enchanted key to my workshop in the Dungeon City deep underground. Everyone here would have permission to co and go from the floating island whenever they wanted, and a few loyal cloth golems holding the souls of the few priests that were killed in this last decade would help with the maintenance of the island and related buildings.
Lorna and I crossed over to my sanctuary.
The first thing I did was to give the new dryads their seeds and they rrily went on their way with briar to plant them in the ever-expanding glade.
“Are you ready?” I asked Lorna.
She smiled coyly and sighed, “Yes. It’s hard to think I’m giving my life away, but the first unread notification from the System after I ca back to life was [You Died]. So, are we going to play our ga of ‘chase the bride’?”
“Yes, we will. You’ll always be born female, by the way. I’m not...”
“I know. I hope you get a piece of your own so we can play,” she purred. “Oh, and let us sotis be born as siblings. Maybe it will be an automatic win for you.” Lorna giggled and winked.
“Once we fall in love again for the ninth ti, you’ll recall all your mories and most of your accumulated Status. Wyxnos will be pissed, which makes it all the more enticing. I don’t know how much, because Fate magic is fickle.”
“Then we’ll be bound forever,” She hugged . “That sounds so exciting!”
Mixing {Sorcery} and {Spell-Singing} was my best bet. Bind Lorna’s cycle of rebirth to , fix her Status, grant her the required Perks. I was divided between the songs by I ended up with “Can’t Help Falling in Love” from the King of Music himself. The slow pace helped weave the strands properly.
I finished the casting. But Fate is fickle. Fate is demanding. I knew what was required of . To subvert it so deeply, I needed a great sacrifice. Greater even than any mortal was capable of in their lifeti. I triggered {Self-Sacrifice}, eschewing the right to beco a {Bygone Hero}. I wanted to et Lorna tomorrow if possible. The spell consud Lorna’s life, more than half a billion HP and Energy combined, and sacrificed forty-eight Perks starting with the (free real estate!) {Pinnacle of…} series that would be removed anyway.
Spoiler
Pinnacle of Strength
Pinnacle Of Dexterity
Pinnacle of Endurance
Pinnacle of Mind
Pinnacle of Willpower
Pinnacle of Charisma
Pinnacle of Magic
Pinnacle of Ego
Pinnacle of Luck
Pinnacle of Soul
Unerring Strike [Monster]
Eyes of the Ocean, Ears of the Waves
Torrent Channeling
Polyphonic Rattle
Ultrasonic Rattle
Wail of the Banshee
Blight Healing
Cleanse Blight
Coral Singer
Coral Shaper
Green Thumb
Infuse plants
Thread Control
Fine Thread Control
Treeshaper
Stone Burrowing
Breathe Rocks
Reinforced Veins
Phase Defense
Bestial Cleave
Cavalry charge
Knock Over
Trample
Smashing Rage
Marauder Coercion
Structural Damage
Sundering Rage
Sand Sense
Sand Cover
Sand Stirring
Sand Eyes
Sand Sight
Coral Blending
Ripple Suppression
Ripple Negation
See Thermoclines
Pierce Thermoclines
Abyssal Sight
Let our little ga begin.
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