"How," I ask. "That doesn't make sense. How could they not know their Mother? I can feel my Mommy right now. My third body can tell Mommy even amongst all the eggs!"
"How strong was that feeling when she had no affinity?" the maid asks. "Not as strong. Of course, you could still feel her when she was by, and she could feel her grandkids."
"You know a lot about my Mother," I say.
"Of course," the maid says. "How could I not know a lot about the first royal child to be born outside of this realm in thousands of years. We know that she suddenly got a class after visiting a Goddess. Not that the false Queens knew all those details. They weren't worth anything. I had to tarnish the Queen's mana and then do a ritual with our Goddess to let them bypass the blood connection."
"I'm not going to get hurt?" the royal dragon asks.
"No, absolutely not," I say. "I wish to heal you, and I do need soone to sit on the throne. Or are you the Queen instead of now?"
"You are the Queen," the maid says. "We can work out any arrangent you wish for after this. The old Queen is strong; she'll make it through this. I promise. Our Goddess was prepared to help her through this. I wondered if she talked to the Goddess of the Future about the plan. I was certain I would lose my head when they crowned Phollo. I was a silly young girl back then, helping the Queen betray the woman I was supposed to serve. I'm glad I did it."
"Yes," I say. "I'm getting ahead of myself. I just never thought I would et anyone on my father's side, and now I'm about to heal her, and she was the Queen. She's even been treated worse than . I'm sorry. I need to heal you." I moved to join my grandmother in bed. I've got so much to do to heal her. How am I going to fix her mana? Did the ritual hurt her soul? That had to be part of what kept her safe.
I just have to get her feeling better. I wish I could take away her pain!
"I see why you wished I were here," Nanoka says. "Elo, I'm sorry to see you in this state. Let Alzi help you. She'll handle you with care. Here, try this Alzi." She hands a little vial of a blue liquid.
Is she trying to finish the job?!
"I want to leave this room first," Elo says. "I can't stand it. I don't trust you. I."
"There is a room I'm thinking about," Nanoka says. "If it is fine with you, Elo."
"Anywhere but here," Elo says.
In the normal fashion, I'm standing in a new room. One much grander than the upscaled maid's room. Still plenty of the sharp black rock jutting out everywhere. A small pile of gold coins sits in the corner like so sort of chair. It has to be a chair. I don't believe it could be anything else. More gold lines the bed, but the mattress looks to be a normal mattress. I hope it is, Elo is lying in it, so she better be comfortable.
The next question is how Nanoka knew about this room but not Love's temple.
"I know what question you're about to ask," Nanoka says. "Sotis you need to get a bit intimate when making deals, and the dance floors just don't work for it. So, yes, I know where a number of royal bedrooms are in the castles, but I don't know much about their cities."
"What does this liquid do?" I ask. We can learn about her exploits another ti.
"Just puts her to sleep," Nanoka says. "I'm not about to hurt her after you said you wish to help her. It'll let you heal her without all the pain."
"Oh, that's much better," I say. "How did you know I thought you were trying to kill her?"
"You paused for a mont, so there must have been sothing going on in your brain. I'm not about to kill all the old queens, so I'm the only one in your harem or anything. Now, heal your grandmother. I would like so familiar company."
I crawl onto the bed and offer Elo the vial, but her arms are too weak to grab it from . Her mouth opens a bit, so I pour it in and wait a few seconds. It doesn't take long for her eyes to close and her breathing to steadies out. I can't do anything for her weak limbs, the second woman who now has that problem, but she'll look like new.
Maybe Dragon has a ritual to help them.
But now I have the other familiar feeling to deal with. I wonder if he's the one who truly kept the assholes from finding out about their Mother. That has to be the other thing this maid wants to show . I'll take my ti with grandma. Check if she wants so lunch or to et so of her great-grandchildren.
I don't need to deal with that man after what he did to Mommy. So of the n I've t have been nice. He at least didn't have to go that far. He must have been part of hurting Grandma as well.
Why have the dragons done so much to hurt ? I haven't even been here, and so they've done so many things to . Zarzi is nice at least.
"She's looking a lot better," Nanoka says. "She's a beautiful woman. It's sad to see her so disfigured."
"Nothing about her sister?" I ask, moving around to get more comfortable next to the old royal dragon
"She did the right thing," Nanoka says. "Both of them. Elo kept her sister in line instead of letting her lover run wild. It's a bit in your blood to love family, it seems. This is the natural outco for the pair. Her sister would've died a few years ago, naturally, at this point, and I'm not going to say anything bad about a woman willing to die for soone she loves. It wasn't just the Queen who was in the bed when I was last here. Those two probably thought they were a good role model for how Phrogni should've handled her love. Instead, Phrogni thought she should let her lover be free. We'll need to be more direct with our lessons. You have too many kids to hope they naturally learn to love one another."
"Maybe I'll get more bodies," I sigh. "Is that too stupid?"
"Haha, yes," Geta says. "The number of won who have been given extra bodies can be counted on an arm that has lost its hand. Don't count on too many more bodies unless the Goddess of Power has a soft spot for you."
"I think I can get her on my side," I say. "I'm pretty good at getting Goddesses to like if they aren't just pure evil. Then I have another idea. Could there be a ritual for fixing their muscles? Elo and Zarzi's muscles."
"You can ask for anything," Geta says. "Just don't expect Death to do anything for you."
"Don't go around giving out that advice," Nanoka says. "Most people shouldn't be going around asking the Goddesses for random things. Death or not."
"I gave it to Alzi, not you. But, yes, others should be careful about asking for things. But we do have a number of Champions that can ask their Goddess for strange things like you."
"Were you waiting for a chance to say that? I'm not about to start asking her for strange things. Alzi can do that with the Goddesses that like her, but I'm not going to get away with that kind of thing with my patron."
"Why won't your goddess let you ask for silly things?" I ask.
"Because she made a champion for a different reason," Nanoka says. "I don't have much I can offer the Goddess, and she doesn't like giving things out. Best case, she just tricks into thinking she's going to help."
"She wants sothing from ," I say.
"Yes, she wants you to love ," Nanoka says. "Hoping to do that in a more private place than with a passed-out out abused Queen and a Valkyrie of Death standing here, but here we are. What more she wants, I don't know. Probably just you not to hate all her people."
Well, another Question to ask so Goddesses. I wonder if I can visit three Goddesses at once with my three bodies. One to ask for more bodies from power, another to deal with Dragon, and my question of fixing so muscles, and the last to ask Fertility to figure out what Kitsune wants from . I already promised her plenty of kids for her help. What else does she want?
Is she going to try and have others beco a Goddess with ? That has to be it!
"You figured sothing out," Nanoka says.
"Probably not," I say. "I doubt I'm right about things. No need to worry about it."
"You're smarter than you think," Geta says. "But Elo is looking a lot better."
"Yes," I say. "I don't know what she did to ss with her face that much. That took way more healing than it should've."
"You also have to worry about her soul and mana," Geta says. "That is probably what took all your mana. But you can't fix it with mana. Not anyti soon, at least."
"Another thing to ask a Goddess about. Unless you have a way?" I ask. "Because I do have a terrible idea of how to do that, and you know I only have one solution to my problems." I give her a kiss and, well, this looks a lot like a certain nearly dead Kitsune. Maybe I should get the official way of treating her ailnts.
"I don't know how to fix her," Geta says. "You'll have to ask soone else. Maybe with your skills, a kid or two would fix the issue."
I doubt Tanatsu would enjoy getting her lover pregnant after ignoring her for so long. A little unfortunate. I would love to help that pair start expanding their family. I need to get that dryad as well, and then Annoris. Why does my list never shrink? I've got more and more to do despite solving so of my problems.
"I guess I should wait," I say. "I'm sure she wants a break from all of that. Maid, who is the other one you want to see?"
"Who said it was a person?" the maid asks. "It is, but that confirms that there isn't another royal male running around. Are you ready to see him?"
"No," I say. "But Elo could use the sleep right now. Better get this over with and move on."
"He won't want to move on," the maid says. "He did his best to protect you."
"How much did he honestly do?" I ask.
"They could've killed you anyti they wanted while you were in your village, my Queen. He had to go through a lot of torture asking them to spare you. Sotis I wonder why they let you grow up. I'm guessing Phrogni killed most of the spies sent to kill or kidnap you due to his pleas. It could've been the Goddess of Sex protecting you as well. I think we both know the Goddess of Fertility didn't do much to protect you during that ti."
"Would Sex have had the power?"
"If she cheated a bit, yes, my Queen."
"The only ones willing to cheat want to destroy ."
"If she did it, it helped you, my Queen."
"She couldn't have done it easily," Geta says. "Phrogni probably saved you and not Sex. A lot of Goddesses were looking at you and wouldn't let Sex misbehave. Why do you think so many like getting near you?"
"Well, Phrogni's dead and I don't care to ask Sex about anything. I'll check on him and leave it a mystery. I guess I can be a bit nicer to him."
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