Lia couldn’t help but feel slightly intimidated as she looked over Simona. Simona, like all level three hundreds, was a living legend, a person who had reached the pinnacle of what people were supposed to be capable of, and…here she was, swearing fealty to Lia.
It was awe-inspiring in a different way than discovering Rose’s true identity or converting Nailah; with both of those, there had been buildup, but…in just the span of a couple of hours, one of the twenty or so people at the level cap had been converted, becoming Lia’s subordinate.
“Um, you may stand.” Lia said. “Thank you.”
Simona hesitated for a mont, glancing at Rose.
“Simona,” Rose said sternly, “Lia is in charge, not . If she orders you to do sothing, it takes precedence over my orders.”
“No, it doesn’t.” Lia said quickly. “I want to be equals with you, not your superior. For important things, whatever Rose is having you do is likely to be far better than what I need.”
Simona frowned, glancing between Rose and Lia, but tentatively standing. “So…which is it? My instincts say to listen to Lia, but they’re all confused since you’ve given conflicting orders. They say I should listen to Lia who says to listen to Rose, but Rose said to listen to Lia…”
Rose sighed. “If it’s important, listen to . If my orders are trivial, defer to Lia. Does that work?”
“I suppose that’s fine.” Lia said.
“That does seem to resolve it, yes.” Simona said. “So…what are your first orders, my liege?” She asked, almost turning to Rose before pausing and turning back to Lia.
“Do whatever Rose tells you.” Lia said. “I’m sure she has so plan she needs you for.”
Rose nodded. “I need to reeducate her.” She explained. “She’s clearly quite rusty, and we can’t have that. In fact, Lia, if you have ti, I think you’ll make an excellent sparring partner.”
“?” Lia asked.
“Yes.” Rose said. “You need to both get used to high-power battles and get used to using Alisha. To that end, I think that sparring with Simona will do you so good.”
“Using Alisha?” Simona asked. “What does that an?”
My Queen, may I have your permission to temporarily take my old form? Alisha asked.
You don’t need my permission, go ahead.
As much as it pains to say it, that is incorrect, my Queen. While I am acting as your equipnt, I am naught but an extension of your will. To act on my own would be tantamount to going against everything I stand for.
Lia sighed internally. Fine.
Alisha, currently acting as the sash on Lia’s kimono, slithered off of her waist before morphing back into her humanoid form. “After my conversion, I have beco my Queen’s dedicated equipnt.” She said, a contented smile on her face. “I am able to absorb artifacts and grant the power of every single one I’ve absorbed to her at once. I also pride myself on being a multi-tool, and it is my dream to beco the only tool she will ever need; weapon, construction tool, hairbrush, utensil, anything. Nothing would make happier than to beco fully an extension of her will, one she could wield with as little thought as she would give to using her own body. I would –”
“Okay, Alisha, that’s enough.” Lia said, shaking her head in disbelief. “Co back now.”
“Yes, my Queen!” Alisha said, a look of undiluted joy on her face as she morphed back into Lia’s kimono sash and tied herself around Lia’s waist.
Simona gave a questioning glance to Rose, who sighed. “Alisha is the exception to what we talked about earlier.” Rose said. “Alia didn’t quite understand what was normal yet and went too far when trying to remove her seditious nature.”
“She’s, uh, been a bit excited since I allowed her to beco my armor full-ti.” Lia said. “A bit drunk on pleasure, and not quite thinking straight.”
I have never been thinking more clearly in my life! Alisha protested. I an every word. Every mont I am not by your side is a mont in which my purpose in life is unfulfilled.
Lia just sighed, shaking her head again. Ever since obtaining Gluttony and taking a permanent place at Lia’s side, Alisha had beco ever more fanatical in her beliefs, and it was getting a little worriso. Lia just hoped that Alisha would calm down after another week or two, and stop saying things like “she wished she could be absorbed by Lia and beco a part of her in every way”.
She had expressed that particular desire that morning, and now Lia was seriously considering asking Alia to revisit Alisha’s conditioning to make it less severe. At this point, Lia would almost rather Alisha was as treacherous as she was before, if only so the problems she made were of a type that Lia knew how to deal with.
Well, not really, Lia didn’t want to have to deal with dissidents if she could avoid it, but at least she wouldn’t be grappling with trying to find the line between accommodating Alisha’s requests and keeping Alisha as a separate, sapient, person. It was hard, because most of those requests were, on their face, completely innocuous, and often Alisha presented them in such a way that they seed reasonable and even for the best.
However, an unsettling underbelly ran underneath those requests, one that Lia only realized after Alisha expressed her desire to sohow beco a part of Lia. For instance, she had requested Lia to asked Alia to devise a system by which Lia could take full control of Alisha’s bodies; she claid it would be useful in combat, so that Lia did not have to verbally tell Alisha what she needed, she could just make it happen.
And Alisha had outlined all sorts of stipulations that would co with it, things that would make it completely and utterly impossible for Alisha to use this link in any way. She even went so far to as to request the ability for Lia to completely shut Alisha’s consciousness out from one of her bodies, so that Lia could take Alisha into her ho without worrying about sensitive information leaking.
And, seeing no issue with those, Lia had asked Alia about them. Alia, too, thought it was an excellent idea; granting Lia more control over Alisha would further cent Alisha’s subservience and serve to truly make Alisha part of Lia’s own strength. So, they had gone through with it, and Lia was forced to admit that it was convenient.
No longer having to remove Alisha upon returning to her ho, and instead just defining a rule that stripped Alisha’s awareness from the body within the ho made the process of going ho just that little bit easier, and being able to change Alisha’s form at a whim was indeed a boon in combat.
Lia’s train of thought was interrupted by Rose. “Everything alright, Lia?” She asked worriedly.
“F-fine.” Lia said, turning to face Rose. “Just have a lot to think about, we’ll talk about it after we’re done here.”
Rose laid a hand on Lia’s arm, smiling gently. “Why don’t we call this eting here, then? Simona, please spend the rest of the day exploring the capital and relaxing as you see fit. When you feel tired, claim any one of the houses that is marked by a red board on the door; those are the empty houses, and you’re free to make any one of them your permanent residence.
“The interiors are all roughly the sa, so don’t worry about anities or anything; just find one that suits your taste aesthetically and is close to places you would like to go often, then take off the board and the house is yours. et us back here at ten in the morning for your first training sessions, understood?”
“Yes, Empress Rose!” Simona said, giving a salute. She turned to leave, paused, then turned back to Lia, looking at her with a sowhat expectant face.
“Um…”
“She’s waiting for you to dismiss her.” Rose whispered.
“Dismissed.” Lia said.
Simona gave another salute and then left, leaving Rose, Alia, and Lia alone in the audience chamber.
“What’s wrong?” Rose asked. “You’re a bit more distracted than usual.”
“Let’s talk about it at ho.” Lia said, hopping off of her seat and walking towards the exit. Her lovers followed, and they were soon at ho, where Alisha’s senses were completely sealed. “So…” Lia began. “Alisha. She’s been, um, excited ever since becoming my equipnt full-ti, and I think she’s essentially drunk on pleasure.”
“She hasn’t caused you any problems, has she?” Rose asked worriedly.
“No, I’m more worried about her.” Lia said. “This morning she told she would like nothing more than for to sohow absorb her, and suggested seeing if Alia could like…make her a living Skill, like my swarm manager one, that would put her completely and utterly under my control while retaining the benefits of her having a separate status.”
“What?” Rose asked, stunned. “Where’s this coming from?”
“I don’t know.” Lia said. “But it made realize that she’s slowly been asking for things that strip away her autonomy and individuality.”
“I think I understand.” Alia said. “I’ve looked in her mind a lot, and she’s obsessed with power, she wants to be as high up as she can get.”
Rose frowned. “So, she wants to take over Lia via this?”
Alia shook her head. “No, I scoured her mind after her first couple of suggestions and she genuinely wants Lia to be in charge of her. But I think if you twist your mind enough, and squint real hard, you could argue that being a part of Lia would, in a sense, make her in charge of everything. She wouldn’t be actively making decisions, but at the sa ti she’d be Lia, or a part of her, and that would put her above everyone else.”
“That’s ridiculous.” Lia said. “It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.”
“I think she might have a point, actually.” Rose said. “If we assu that Alisha is, as you say, drunk on pleasure, then she’s not in her right fra of mind, and she could easily be convincing herself of sothing ridiculous like that.”
“I guess.” Lia said. “Either way, I was hoping that we could like…tone down Alisha’s conditioning.”
“I don’t know…” Alia said hesitantly. “The kind of pleasure she’s feeling is addictive; what if she acts out in an attempt to get us to reinstate the heavier conditioning? I an…I don’t think it’s possible to make her a sapient Skill, not with the way the system’s set up, but I don’t see much of a problem with granting requests that would reduce her free will if that’s what she wants.”
“The problem is it’s not what she wants, not really.” Rose said. “She’s not in the right fra of mind to actually consent to any of this.”
“But her ‘normal’ fra of mind would have her want to overthrow the governnt and ruin everything we’ve worked for.” Alia pointed out.
“Um, I couldn’t help but overhear, and I have a suggestion.” Connie said, stepping into the room shyly. “Why not give her what she wants, just temporarily? I’m sure that, after a couple of weeks, she’d realize that it’s really not what she wants.”
“But her conditioning will make her feel happier than ever.” Alia said. “What’s to stop her from slipping into a pleasure coma and staying that way forever?”
“Just tweak the conditioning so that this sort of thing provides slightly less happiness than being aware and active.” Connie said. “Problem solved.”
“Okay, but how do give her what she wants? We can’t exactly make her into a Skill.” Rose pointed out.
“I might be able to do sothing.” Alia mused, rubbing her chin. “I can put her into a trancelike state where she is effectively running completely autonomously in accordance with her state of mind at the ti of the spell being cast. She’ll have a vague awareness of things, but be lacking in any manual control over herself. And then I can feed her a very, very vague sense of how you are feeling and it’ll be…close enough.”
“Let’s go with that, then.” Lia said. “We’ll tell her we’re doing so testing, and that this will be a trial run to see if she actually wants to be assimilated into .”
“What do we do if she still says she wants to afterwards?” Rose asked.
“Uhh…I don’t…know.” Lia said. “We can think of sothing in the anti.”
“We could just let it happen.” Alia said. “At that point she’s making an inford decision, and will have been given plenty of ti to cool her head while in less…stimulating circumstances.”
“I don’t want that, though.” Lia said. “It’d be uncomfortable for , regardless of what she wants.”
“Oh.” Alia said. “Why didn’t you say so earlier? I thought it was just an ethical thing. In that case, I’ll make extra sure her pleasure is toned down to a small level during that ti and make it so she’s just a tiny bit uncomfortable after long enough. That way there’s no way she’d prefer it over normal life.”
“Please do.” Lia said, relieved. “Hopefully this should get her to lay off on the whole…whatever she’s doing right now. Should we go break the news to her?”
Alia nodded. “Yeah. I can perform the spellwork while we’re at it, it’s pretty simple.”
“Only you would say that.” Rose said, giving her a smile. “Co back soon, okay? I’d love to have so bonding ti with everyone now that we’re back from the battlefield.”
“Will do.” Lia said, stepping out of the portal, Alia in tow. Lia led the two into one of the eting rooms, locking the door behind them so they could have so privacy while they worked. “Alisha, we need to talk. Could you shift to your human form?”
“You can just do it, my Queen.” Alisha said, slithering off of Lia’s waist and taking her old form. “There is no need to ask for my permission.”
“Uh, right.” Lia said. “Well, Alia and I talked about what you asked for this morning.”
Alisha’s eyes lit up. “And?”
“It’s impossible to make you a Skill, even Alia can’t do that. However, we do have so alternative options that we would like to test out.”
“By all ans!” Alisha said eagerly. “What does it entail?”
Lia looked to Alia, who gave a nod. “I will be effectively instilling magic in you that will have your forms outside of here act as they always do. Your body here, however, will be completely controlled by Lia. Much like if you were a Skill, you would only be sowhat conscious, but you would also have a deeper connection to Lia’s emotions.”
“Do it.” Alisha said imdiately. “It sounds wonderful.”
“A mont, first.” Lia said. “This is only one potential avenue, so we wish to trial it before we commit to anything permanent. So, we’ll be trying this out for one week, and at the end we’ll revisit the subject. If it turns out this is not what you want, or if I find it to be too much, then we’ll explore other options.”
“That is perfectly fine.” Alisha said. “When do we begin?”
“Now.” Alia said. “Please return to your spot at Lia’s waist, and I’ll begin the magic from there.”
Alisha, grinning with delight, did as she was told. And, after only a few minutes, Alia finished her work, standing up straight and giving Lia a nod. “Done.” She said. “She should wake up exactly one week from now.”
“How much will she rember?” Lia asked.
“Most of it,” Alia said, “so we’ll still need to block her senses inside our ho, but she’ll also be fully ready to discuss the experience right as she wakes up.”
“Right.” Lia said. “Let’s be on our way, then.”
Alia linked arms with Lia, resting a head on her shoulder. “That sounds like a wonderful idea.”
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