What buff spells can you use on another person else?

    It was unlikely Dice knew many buff spells well enough to use them on other people. It was always harder to buff someone else, than it was to buff yourself. Classed Fighters tended to just buff themselves before fights. Rarely would they spend the time mastering the buff well enough to apply it to someone else.

    Dice responded with just two spells, both through pieces of memory. The first memory showed a figure walking quietly and carefully, probably a Quiet Steps or Silent Steps spell. He didn’t have such a spell at his disposal, though Ina had something similar. It was a fairly common spell for hunters in the Wilds, though not necessarily required. Many beasts could smell better than they could hear, so spells that covered one’s scent were usually more useful. The next memory she offered was one where a figure was making increasingly accurate strikes with thrown weapons. It was something to do with thrown dexterity, and therefore not really useful to him. He tried another question.

Does Karmis have any trinkets that protect against mental attacks?

The only thing he felt from his link with Dice was confusion. She had no idea what he was talking about. He was trying to think of more question for Dice, but Dice was clearly told very little. His mind was racing through questions and possibilities, but fundamentally he knew he had to be the one to take care of Karmis.

Presuming, Karmis hadn’t locked her tent against a man she thought dead, he could gain access to her tent and cast his Dominate Mind spell. He asked himself, would that work? She wouldn’t have the influence he had built up inside of Dice, which would mean, more than likely, the spell would fail. Would that be enough to incapacitate her? He realized, painfully, it would have been better if he had been in Karmis’ bed every rest period. He would have been able to apply his influence at least then, even if he had to figure out a way to perform for her. Could he wake her long enough to us his Gaze for some extra advantage? Could he simply use Dominate Will, and hope it failed spectacularly and killed her? Dice’s mind had been so easy to dominate, he couldn’t really imagine failing to dominate Karmis, even if he had to fight her mentally. What other options were there? After he dominated or killed Karmis, he would have to do the same to Wersa, but her tent was open all the time because her legs stuck out, so he would have easy access. What choice did he have? It was dangerous, but he had to try. They would come for him, hunt him to other settlements. Especially if he took Dice with him. She held their secrets.

It was unlikely he would be able to fool them by having Dice try to infiltrate when they were awake again. Her eyes were a bit too vacant and her voice completely toneless. That wasn’t an option, and he definitely needed more options.

He decided to consult the Grimoire. Ina dropped it down to him, her face hidden from him. She seemed confused, but he didn’t have time to talk with her, he needed to live, for them both.

“Grimoire! Tell me more about my spells. My Path has advanced considerably!”

You have taken another Dominating step.

He took this to be a good sign, and continued hurriedly, with a specific question. He was a bit frantic, he still needed travel back while Karmis and Wersa still slept.

    “What is Will?”

Your Will is the animating force of your experiences and personality. No two people have the same Will. Your Will drives you. You Will is your sense of self.

So Will was… personality? Drive? To control someone’s will meant he could.. direct people? Change what they wanted? He asked another question.

“If I control a person’s Will, can I have them do what I want without needing to direct their specific actions? Will they know what I am doing? Will they fight it all the time?”

Your will be done over their own. They will do as you ask them believing they are doing exactly what they wanted all along. To control Will is to direct without directing. To direct Will is to have an unknowing slave, happy to be of service should you wish it.

It was no wonder this spell was more difficult to cast. If successful, whatever you suggested would be what the person believed was true. They would never know you controlled them, they would simply act according their will, which was also your will. He felt himself revel a bit in the thought of using such a powerful spell. This was useful, but he still need more options. He would have to cast these spells as quickly as he could, and hope that Karmis couldn’t resist them all.

“My Path has advanced significantly! Have any of my spells improved?”

The strength of your Dominator’s Influence has increased.

The strength of your Dominator’s Presence has increased.

You have a new spell you may not cast, the spell-template is already available in your mind.

He hadn’t checked earlier, but it was true, there was a spell-template that felt like he could activate it. It was complex, many times as complex as Dominate Will.

“What is the name of this spell, how is it used?”

Your new spell is as follows:

Dominate..

Just as he was reading, he felt Ina, push on their bond. At first he ignored her, trying to read the spell name, but she pushed hard again. Icy feeling had reached most of his body at this point, and he was beyond anger, so he considered simply closing the bond off as much as possible so he could continue his work. As he was turning to look in Ina’s direction, she pushed hard across the bond, offering him the entirety of herself. This was what they did when they were intimate, opening the bond totally to each other. He paused not understanding, and then she slammed into his mind with her own.

***

    When their minds joined, he felt Ina push away the feeling of coldness from his mind. She wrapped herself around his mind, while wrapping herself around his body in the outside world. He felt the warmth of her regard for him, and realized she had been so very worried for him. The use of his spells had caused some kind of change he didn’t understand. The rage had built in him, the affront to his dignity had caused a fire in his soul, only for it to suddenly be replaced with a feeling of deadly cold that drove him towards survival at all costs. He understood the feelings as they happened, but not why they happened. It had to do with his Class, his Path, and whatever the grimoire had done to him.

    He gripped Ina tightly, thanking her for her warmth. Guilt came crashing down, when he glanced over at Dice, or what was left of her. She was still smiling at him, sitting on the ground. Not able to move without direction from him. He had been almost fond of her, after a fashion, and yet, she was willing to kill him and he was willing to destroy her mind. Moreover, he had enjoyed destroying her mind. He had love it, in fact. It had empowered him.

    He sighed, and thanked the Divine Humanity, he had Ina. He took a moment to hold her, and be held in return. He knew he would still have to go through with the plans he had made earlier, when he was not quite himself, but he would do it with Ina’s support. He needed to move, though. He needed to get all this over with.

    He steeled himself, and looked down at the latest spell he would have at his disposal. After reading the words provided to him by the grimoire, he closed the book and stored it away. Rather than be shock at what it had offered, he only felt grief. Grief for what he might do in the future, and for grief for the person he was becoming.

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The supposedly powerful Dominator sat waiting, worried, trying to decide which spell to ready in his mind. He could start with Dominate Mind, and potentially damage Dice’s mind right away. He had no idea if she could resist it, and if she could resist it, what form that resistance might take. Dominate Mind might immediately incapacite her so he could move in for the kill, or it might actually put her under his control? What would that even mean? He could Dominate Will, but he knew even less about what that would do than Dominate Mind. He hadn’t gotten much more time with the grimoire, he had been busy with Dice nearly every moment of each cycle, but even if he had time, he was hesitant to know more about his Class. What if his Class offered him even worse spells? What further temptation would there be for him?

His mind had wandered, and so he marshaled it back to the immediate threat. He could lure her in and use Dominator’s Gaze, then.. do what? It wouldn’t entirely incapacitate her, but it would make his other spells better right? It gave her a strong dose of his influence. He would still need to Dominate Mind or Dominate Will in the end, but at least they would likely work right? Could he rely on the fact she wanted one last go with him, or should he try to immediately cast a spell? If she noticed he was concentrating and not speaking, she might attack immediately. It seemed best to lure her in, and get her close enough to actually cast a spell. His primary two spells Dominate mind and Dominate Will required a touch to work. If he could control Dice, would he need Dice to address his problems with Karmis? Having a Blade Fighter would be helpful, at least she could distract Wersa or Karmis for him. His plan solidified in his head. He had to lure Dice in, use Gaze or at least get into range to touch her, and give himself the best chance at his other spells working. Everything was risky, but at least this plan provided him a potential extra tool to use against his other two problems. He began to fill the spell-templates in his mind with the power of his Path. He continued to wait and worry

***

    It was difficult to cast a new spell in the best of circumstances. The Dominator’s Gaze he was preparing wasn’t a full spell template, but rather the activation of a passive spell that ran in the background of his mind at all times. It should be, theoretically, easier since it wasn’t really a fully casted spell. He needed to simply increase the intensity of his passive Influence spell, focus it through his eyes, and unleash, or at least that was his best guess. He hoped it would be that simple.

Right now, he found it difficult to do anything with his mind. It was surprisingly hard to even activate a spell while you were inside of someone’s ‘place’. As she twisted underneath him, grasping at his arms, their hips bouncing in tandem, he found himself rather contemplative about what had transpired.

She had approached him, knowing his direction thanks to Karmis, and he called out to her, waiting in the shadow of a tree. The light was much brighter now, more than half-way back to its usual brightness. He had made sure to have something to dive behind if she attacked right away, but she hadn’t. She had simply said that Karmis was still angry, angry at them both, and that were to move further away and do some scouting. He agreed, and they left. It had been a clam, casual exchange. She didn’t seem sad or very perturbed. He supposed this meant she had killed a lot of people at Karmis’s behest, even people she liked.

After a sixteenth or so, they stopped at his request, for a rest. True to form Dice was on him immediately, pulling at his clothes. He had obliged, thinking it would easier to do what he needed to do if they were in mid-session, but now he found it a lot harder. Thankfully, her clothes and blades were more than a span from them, so she could immediately stab him, but then again he couldn’t really convince himself she didn’t have a blade hidden somewhere. On the other hand, there was at least one place he was sure was empty except for what he was putting there.

This had been uneventful really. He had no trouble performing like he had with Karmis. Despite his life being on the line here, Dice was her usual self, and so he.. well, he hadn’t relaxed, but he had let nature take its course. If he weren’t risking his life, this might have just another cycle of training with Dice. He had to remind himself he couldn’t procrastinate here, it was her or him. The choice obvious, but still he found it hard to activate his Gaze. Maybe after he.. finished, he could pull it off, but it was just as likely she would strike while he was distracted right? He needed to think of something to clear his mind. Something gross enough that he involuntarily empty his mind and give him a chance at activating the spell. What about.. Wersa? Naked? Ugh! It was now or never

As his mind rejected the image and began to clear, his hands came up to grip Dice’s head, drawing her into looking him in the eye. He stopped his movement on top of her. He felt the intensity of his Influence increase, he focused it to his eyes. Dice open her mouth to speak, to probably tell him to keep going. The panic of possibly dying shot through him as he noticed Dice begin to reach for something beside them. He unleashed, activating his Dominator Gaze for the first time.

His vision grew dark, like night had returned suddenly, but this new change was different from the gloom of the night, because everything took on a new hue, an almost lightless, midnight blue. Dice’s head rocked back, she had caught an eye full of his Gaze. Her pupils dilated, and her movement stopped. He waited a moment, wondering what he had done exactly, but eventually her body twisted underneath him and she gasped, sucking in air. She relaxed a moment after, a happy look on her face signifying contentment. Had she? Really? Her relaxed look continued, and she began to  stare almost sightlessly through him.

Suddenly, he felt something stir in his own heart. This weakling, had used him! Wanted to kill him! He was a Dominator! He couldn’t allow this to stand! He would break them all! He felt himself harden inside of her again. Baring clenched teeth, he decided what fate this woman would receive for daring to oppose him.

Hot rage ran rampant through his being for a moment, eventually though it gave way to a freezing cold. His mind closed shut, like rusty beast trap. He needed to dominate this woman further, and use her against her party. He needed to eliminate the threat to himself.

He prepared the easier of the two spells, Dominate Mind. Dice was starting mumble to herself, still clearly incoherent, when he cast his first true Domination spell.

It took what felt like an eternity, but the spell template was finally fully ready in his mind, and he directed it towards Dice through his hands touching her heard. After a moment, he could feel it land, and wrap itself around her mind.. His vision exploded.

***

   He knew Dice, in a way she didn’t even know herself. He knew her from the outside in. He had known her body from before, but now he felt his own mind invade hers. He felt surprisingly little resistance. His influence free floated all throughout the image he built for himself of her psyche, light clouds of pure mental power. He couldn’t see her mind, like it was a real thing, but he could imagine it through what he felt, and in doing so, he could alter it. He noticed she was under some serious strain having him there, in her mind, but he felt nothing like resistance. In retrospect, he shouldn’t have expected Dice to have much mental resistance, considering how easily Karmis controlled her.

    After getting the lay of the land, he began to experiment. Could he read her memories? Not really. Whenever he tried to change something or interject his own thoughts in Dice’s mental space, random memories would fire, but he had no control over them and only had random glimpses of what did flash through her mind. Maybe with time, he could get specific memories with the right catalyst, but he didn’t need her memories right now. He needed control, Domination. After touching and probing everything in her mind, he finally found what he was looking for, a region that seemed to affect her physical actions. He kept probing, finding that intensity of his probe changed the intensity of the action, and that angle of his approached changed what part of her moved. In the back of his mind, he was still monitoring her physical actions as he laid atop her. He was able to verify his experiments pretty quickly. He didn’t have much fine control, but he understood how it worked.

    His next experiment was trying to figure out how to move both of them at the same time. Dice wouldn’t be much use to him if he could only control her while his body was dead to the world. After another long moment, pushing against what felt like pressure, he was able to reach backwards, and move his body away from Dice, and stand it up. He then, ever so slowly, and with many mistakes, managed to stand Dice up. He felt like a puppeteer, and Dice moved a bit like one, as he got better at controlling her actions. He was able to make her walk, jump, and run a small circle around him. Without really thinking about it, he had her kneel to him in supplication.

He shuddered and caught himself, refocusing on what he wanted to do. This.. power was intoxicating. He had hardly ever felt so good, as he did now. He could feel Dice, still dazed, and in some mental pain, try to move her own body, and fail. Before she was fully aware he decided to practice some more with his control, and through some effort, was able to her dressed again.

Eventually, though he could feel her rally in her own mind, pushing against him weakly. He felt no threat, he was quite secure in the landscape of her mind, but she tried anyway to move her body. He could feel her panic, and she pushed against him with all her might, but nothing she did moved him or her body. The Influence all around him made him far stronger than her. He knew he should be feeling at least pity here, but all he felt was cold. This woman was going to use and then murder him, he reminded himself. She continued to push against and him, and he continued to stand firm. He felt as though there were something he was suppose to do here, some way of finessing this battle to its completion with minimal cost to both sides, but he had no idea how to do that. The less damage he did to her the better use she would be later. He knew how to defend the territory he had taken, which constituted most of the space in her mind, but he didn’t really know how to win the war peaceably. The description of the spell had made it as though there was a way to simply control without issue, so long as the level of influence was high enough, but it hadn’t given him instructions on mental battles. As he thought through his options, coldly and calculatingly, her mental attacks grew increasingly frantic.

With one final attempt, she seemed to collapse into herself, and he felt her psyche break upon the wall of his mind, like a beast egg thrown to the ground. She was broken now. He could feel she was lacking something that she had before. He felt a huge surge of advancement in his Path! He had totally dominated this Blade Fighter, who was arrogant enough to try to use him and kill him. Dice was his now! A possession, more a thing, than a person. He pulled away from her mind, not fully, but still leaving himself a connection, and returned to his own mind. He felt, without really knowing why, that she was no longer Dice really. That she wouldn’t ever recover.

He wanted to mourn her, despite what she was going to do him, but that cold feeling that had followed the rage, still held sway over his mind. He needed to know how much control over her he had if he still wanted to make use of her. If he had to puppeteer her body, she would be of limited use. He knew despite his success with Dice, he had not used his spell correctly. She would be more puppet than person now, not really able to fool anyone who knew her.

He looked at her through his own eyes, assessing any outward changes. She had something of a vacant look in her eye, but otherwise seemed to be able to stand on her own.

He sent a direction to what remained of her mind through his link to her.

Jump

She flew into the air, jumping well above his head.

Sit

After landing, she quiet sat on the ground.

Smile

A smile crossed her face, and she looked up at him.

    So he wouldn’t need to move her body himself. There was enough left of her to move herself, with his direction.

    Attack the tree behind you with your blades!

    While still looking at him, she plucked two blades from her hidden pockets and tossed them at the tree behind her. They each stuck into the tree up to the hilt. The tree was very hard, it would take considerable power to sink two such blades into it easily. She could definitely kill for him. How complex could the order he gave her be? Did he have time to find out?

The time it had taken to get them here, and take over her mind, was surprisingly fast. The subjective time spent in her mind had felt like half a work cycle, but he could tell it hadn’t been long in the outside world because the light had only gotten a little bit brighter.

She could kill for now, but how could he use that to his advantage? She couldn’t kill Wersa in a fight. Even with the speed of her blades, Wersa would need to only block shots at her face and charge. Dice might be able to dodge her for a while, but eventually she would die due to a lack of endurance. His only advantage, if he hurried, was Karmis and Wersa would be asleep still when they arrived. He could try to have Dice kill them both in their sleep, but he didn’t know what sort of spells Karmis had active. Their tents were made of spelled material. Dice’s blades might not go through them easily, and damaging them would wake both Karmis and Wersa. It was unlikely she could unleash two blade attacks simultaneously strong enough to kill both threats in their sleep. In either case, one would wake and probably be able to kill Dice and himself. Ina would be helpful, but he didn’t really want to risk her on anything that wasn’t sound.

He decided to see if Dice could answer questions in her state, as he needed more information.

What spells does Karmis have active when she sleeps?

“Ah, duhn, nuh.” She spoke, her voice sounding utterly dead and devoid of emotion.

This was a breakthrough! Whatever was left of her mind, could still access her memories to some extent. He decided to experiment.

Speak through our mental connection, and not out loud.

Could you kill Karmis in her sleep?

He felt a ‘no’, come across their link.

Why?

He realized she wasn’t really speaking through their connection, it wasn’t at all like his bond with Ina, it was more like she was showing him the answers to his questions through shared memories

Dice showed him a moment when Karmis had said her tent would only allow people she wanted in. He considered this piece of information. He was probably the only one out here, other than Karmis, that had ever been in Karmis’ tent. She had apparently added to the list of people able to enter, to allow her the chance to seduce him earlier. Was it likely she would remove his ability to enter her tent if she thought him a dead man? Could he rely on that? If she was exhausted after the long night, why would she bother removing a dead man from her permissions list? It would take time and effort, and even a bit of the power of her Path, to alter a spelled item like that. He suddenly felt confident that, it was not Dice that would have to kill Karmis, but himself. It was the only way. He surprised himself by sparing no thought to mercy. The a cold feeling still grasped his heart. He needed to survive. He asked Dice another question

Could I kill Karmis in her sleep, assuming I had access to her tent?

She showed him a memory of one of her first outings with Karmis where they slept in the same room. Karmis warned Dice to never approach her with a blade or anything other weapon, even accidentally, while she slept. She had a trinket that would wake her and cast a protective spell. Karmis did not want Dice to waste its charge accidentally by triggering it.

Such a thing must have cost a fortune in his estimate. The tower sold things like that only on the top most floors, a place he had never been. What was he in the face of such an expenditure of gold? He wasn’t doubting himself, the cold feeling that gripped him, wouldn’t let him, but he needed some other avenue of attack.
He looked at Dice and the answer became obvious. A feeling of thrill, of almost pleasure, rose up out of the cold fog of his soul. He would just have to Dominate Karmis.

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“You useless bastard!” She threw the chair at him.

    Her ministrations had worked to some extent, but weren’t lasting in their effect.

    “Lady, I will keep.. ministering to you if you will let me. Just lay back, and perhaps it will all work out.” His voice trying to sound apologetic, but probably failing.

    She seethed, “That isn’t what I need boy, if I wanted that I would simply buy someone with a more practiced tongue.”

    Her eyes narrowed, “You’re a Tamer. Do I need fur to interest you? Is that what this is about? I don’t have claws or tails?” This strangely hurt him in a totally irrational way, causing him to bite back.

    “Dice has no fur, and no claws, but those blades of hers. I have had no trouble with her. It is just nervousness, you’re too beautiful.”  His voice a little hoarse. He tried to bring it around with a compliment.

    She shouted angrily at him, “What does she do that you need to get it hard, boy? Do you want to take me in my ass? Was my mouth and cunt not good enough for you?”

    “No, no, listen Karmis, this isn’t about you, it’s me, it’s all me. The night has me scared. Maybe in daylight, it will work out for us.” He knew she wouldn’t be convinced but he had to keep the act going, hoping for her to defuse herself. He also hoped she still needed him enough that she wouldn’t do anything drastic.

    “Get out, boy. Go out and check the alarms again, or hunt us something for dinner. Send Dice back.” Her tone final.

    “Y-yes, Karmis.” as he spoke, he drew his pants up to his waist, grabbed his shirt, and ran from the tent.

He moved quickly away from the campsite. The darkness had started to recede, the misting evaporating all around him. The light was still low, but he could see just fine as he moved in the direction of Dice. Maybe he could get her to.. and then he could rush back.. and perform? It wasn’t much of a plan. A sense of bitterness welled up inside him. He had never expect his life would hang by the thread of his sexual performance. For Divinity’s sake, he had expect to live his life chaste, unable to merry. He had always imagined dying, older, perhaps much older, fighting some powerful beast. Never did he think a smelly Warrior woman would crush his head at the command of a spurned spell caster. Maybe Karmis would just burn a hole through him. That would be quick at least.

***

The shadows around him were beginning to evaporate. The Wilds were often a fairly shaded place, but the top most foliage was nearly transparent, allowing at least some light to trickle down. As you went further down from the top of the tree, to the bottom, the leaf-cover got more opaque. Once on the ground, the light was so thin, it became hard to see long-distances. Not that you could see very far in the Wilds anyway, thanks to the sheer amount of vegetation.

He could send that Dice was already returning, as he pushed further into the Wilds. He called to her, long before she could see him. His ears and nose finding her quickly. She materialized from the gloom, shadows across her face. He couldn’t see her eyes, they were dark pools on her face, but he could see her mouth and lips.

He spoke quickly, “Karmis requests you back at the campsite. She is… angered at me. I could not.. perform to her expectations.”

As first her face was lit with a grin, and she laughed, but eventually, still looking at him, her mouth turned into a frown.

She let out a sigh, and she spoke,“Ah ‘ee, et beh ‘est tuh ‘ease Ka’miss.” Her tone was firm, but sad.

“It would be best to please Karmis? Tell her I will try it again, and I am sure it work out fine. Tell her…” His voice trailed off, he didn’t know what else to say. Dice, without waiting for him to finish, turned her back to him, and left.

After a long moment, he too began moving further away quickly. A few moments later, he slowed down, and stopped. The look of Dice’s mouth, the frown, was something he had never seen from her. She had pouted, yelled, huffed, but never just frowned, in the short time he had known her. He was already worried, but the frown had sent him into a panic. Her statement had been obvious. It was obviously best to please the Karmis, that much was clear, but it hadn’t meant much more than that to him. The frown though, the seriousness of it, from Dice of all people, that was frightening.

Was it a warning? Dice wasn’t a subtle woman, despite her talent for killing from the shadows. She wasn’t crafty, that was Karmis’ job. Dice was just the knife in the hand of the woman in red. Still, even if it wasn’t an intentional warning, he felt this was probably the end for him. Karmis might send Wersa after him, but it was doubtful she would be able to find him. Karmis had given him nothing, but perhaps she had a means of tracking him with a spell? It was more likely they would send Dice to kill him, but if he had Ina, well, he might win. It was likely he would die, and Ina would maul Dice. They might even kill each other, but realistically, Dice could fill them both full of blades at any sort of distance. Ina would have to ambush the woman, killing her in nearly a single stroke. Dice was so agile though, and very experienced. He would have to be there to help, he couldn’t send Ina in alone. If Ina died, well it would be all for naught, wouldn’t it? He would have little reason to keep going and would likely not make it back to the settlement anyway. In any case, he would likely die. Could he just run?

He couldn’t beat Wersa in speed or endurance, but she could only realistically use one of her two advantages against. Her buffs allow her bursts of speed that would allow her to gain on him in a straight line easily, but would drain her endurance terribly. Without the buffs draining her, she might be able to travel for cycles longer than he could, but her lack of agility and knowledge of the terrain would keep her lagging behind him. If she could locate him, or knew where he was going, she might eventually catch up, but it was unlikely her senses were acute enough to find him if he was well hidden. Karmis might have a spell to locate him, but she would be sick after the first cycle of traveling on Wersa’s back. Karmis would only slow Wersa down. After thinking all this through, it was unlikely they would send Wersa, but what about Dice?

He might be able to out-run Dice over a long distance, but her stamina had improved some and Karmis would buff her to the hilt. Dice might even have an apothecary’s or alchemist’s solution that would help her catch up to him in the short-term. Dice’s agility was fantastic, in more ways than one. Dice moved better through the trees than he did after some practice, but she simply wasn’t used to the extended exertion of traveling all cycle. Ina could escape easily. The Party had little interaction with Ina, he had kept her away from them. It was doubtful they could track her. They hadn’t noticed her at all when she was above them, or at least they had never mentioned her presence. They had never even asked him about the lack of her presence. He probably had the bias against his Class to thank for their disinterest in Ina. Ina had never set off the outer-alarm spells because he controlled them. Karmis, on the other hand, had her own set of ones located at the camp tuned to some specification he didn’t know.

If he ran, right now, what would they do to him? The contract would punish him potentially if ran right now. Some allowance might be made if he could be sure they were going to kill him first. The contracted worked on a personal basis shared across the party. It was dependent on specific mental triggers and physical actions he didn’t understand. It was a piece of spell-work the Tower employed to enforce cooperation. The Tower’s spell-work was often inscrutable, it came from the central region of the True Human Realm. He knew nothing of the central region.

How else might they punish him? If he ran would they even chase? Did it matter? Karmis was angry, but was she angry enough to bother with him, a mere guide and Tamer? What would they do when they got back to the settlement.. His thoughts stopped dead. His parents were back there and would have no protection from the party he worked for. They weren’t covered under the contract, and no one from the settlement would care about what happened to an older couple from the hamlets. Despite the hamlets providing the settlement a lot of cheap labor and basic materials, most in the settlement thought of them as a burden. Their deaths were beneath notice. Karmis could eventually find someone to bribe that would tell her where his parents lived. Everything was for sale in the settlement. The location of some hamlet dwellers was nothing.

Greer might lie for him, or if enough coin were offered, might help Karmis. Greer was protected by being affiliated with the Tower, so she had nothing to fear. If he had to be honest with himself, he couldn’t be sure what Greer would do. They had known each other a long time, but his working for this Party had been her idea. She had found him this deathtrap of a job. If he couldn’t be sure about her, he couldn’t rely on her to cover for him.

He needed to if and who they were going to send before he made a decision, but if he went back now, Wersa could just kill him a flash. His hearing was good, but not good enough to listen in from a significant distance. Ina’s hearing might be good enough. He would have to check with her. He was about ask Ina for help, but he stopped realizing her current position. Ina was still back there, where he asked her to stay. She was still calmly watching the campsite. She had been worried from the start and hadn’t left the source of the threat. He was so used to her following when he left, that it had surprised him that she had stayed.

He had trouble understanding Ina’s emotions through the bond, they were just too different from his own, but he had been able to look through her eyes and hear through her ears before. The exchange of senses was far from perfect when she was a greater beast. There were some very big differences between how Ina heard and saw things, and how a human did, but he could get general impressions. Now that Ina was a beastwoman, it should be easier. Their senses would, hopefully, overlap better.

He reached out through the bond, offering himself up to Ina in the hopes she’s would offer her senses up to him. The bond worked better if there were a sort of exchange. He tried school his emotions for her, as she was clearly angry about his panic. He tried to convey a sense of calm, of hopefulness, and the warmth of.. love. He hadn’t spent much time with Ina recently, but he had always been in communication with her, promising her quality time after the job was done. She had been patient, and had even been interested in experiencing the night cycles with him.

    He hid his body in the nook of tree, and let his vision go dark. A moment later, he could see, though he no control over the focus. Everything became sharp, the colors somehow different. His hearing bloomed, the heart beats near him pounding loudly, like drum beats. Ina still controlled what he saw and heard, but he could offered suggestions. He asked her to creep as close as she dared, until she could make out the individual sounds of Karmis and Wersa moving around. Then he waited, to see if they would notice Ina. He felt awful risking Ina, but it was unlikely either of them would ever be able to find Ina unless she let them. By the time Karmis cast a spell, Ina could be long gone. She was many times more agile than Wersa, and had far more endurance than Dice. She would live through all of this, even if he did not, he vowed.

    Eventually he relaxed some, they seemed totally oblivious. He had to remind himself these adventurers knew little of the Wilds and thought nothing of a Tamer from such a backwards place. No alarm spells sounded, not even silently, as Karmis’ angry expression didn’t change as Ina crept closer. At this point, it was likely Karmis hadn’t tuned her spells correctly, or Ina was just beyond their range. It was possible she had relied on him totally for outward alarm spells, and her personal ones were only for her tent or the immediate area around the campfire. She was either arrogant or had simply relied too much on him.

Karmis stood, her robe flapping open, pacing back and forth. Wersa still seemed disinterested in whatever was going. Ina, after a moment, could tune her hearing to the point where he could hear Karmis angrily talking about him nearly under her breath.

    Karmis muttered, “That limp-dick, backwoods hick. He probably only gets it up for beasts or his cousins.”

    He didn’t have any cousins he knew about. His parents had never talked about extended family, and he hadn’t ask. You didn’t talk about the dead in the hamlets. There wasn’t a point to it. He couldn’t agree about the beast crack either, but it hardly mattered. It was clear Karmis was still very angry.

    After waiting a short while, Dice showed up. Ina couldn’t see her directly, but she could smell and hear her arrive.

    Karmis immediately spoke, as Dice appeared, “I am done with the Tamer. He is useless to me. I requested a man for a guide, to replenish myself with and to fight the boredom, but instead what I got was a beastfucker.”

    This confirmed his speculation about her Path. She need him to advance and to continue to empower her spells. Judging by his interaction with her, she needed him to be charmed or fall into some sort of lust for her. His resisting of her spells had maybe even been a challenge to her, something that would be really good for her Path, but when it was clear he preferred the company of Dice, it had hurt her, and perhaps even hurt her Path.

    Dice spoke back, in a cautious tone, “Eh f-ook’d meh ‘ust ‘ine.”

He translated for himself, “He fucked me just fine.”

Karmis, paused and sniffed in Dice’s direction, “You’re little better than beast. Since we don’t need him, we will get rid of him. You will take him far from us, far enough the punishment from the contract, will fall mostly on your shoulders, and you put a blade in him. You will do it. Since he preferred you, you will be his demise. You will do your job.”

He let out a breath, this was what he was expecting, an order for his death. He at least knew who would be coming to get him. Would Dice agree though? She was under his influence, but what that meant exactly was still confusing to him. She had opened up to him, in a lot of ways. Did that mean her would loyalty change at all?

    He heard a tremble in Dice’s response, “Ah, ef ah ‘aft tuh, ah ‘ill, buh cahn ah ‘ave ‘em uh ‘ast ‘ime?”

He translated again, his stomach dropping, “If I have to, I will, but can I have him a last time?”

    Dice had not even attempted to resist Karmis. Either she cared little for him, or was too afraid of Karmis. In either case, his influence wasn’t enough for overt action. He was disappointed. He had helped Dice quite a bit learning the Wilds, and done much for her ‘place’, but it wasn’t enough to sway her from her job.

    “I don’t care if you want ride that beastfucker again, but he dies. It will at least save us some gold on this waste of a trip. Kill his beast as well, if you see her. If she has a core, it will be worth something. My spell is still tracking him. He is not that far from us, in that direction. Now go!” Karmis, voice was less angry and more cold.

    Dice said no more and he heard her begin to leave.

    He heard Karmis call after Dice, telling her one more thing, “Don’t wake us when you return. I want to sleep through the headache that comes with breaking a contract.”

It was true none of them had gotten much sleep during the night cycles, so it made sense after finishing with business with him, she would sleep. He asked Ina to slowly move away and return to him. She would be able to reach him before Dice did.

    Now he had to think about what he would do. Karmis was angry, and clearly vengeful. Vengeful enough to recoup some of her costs. He couldn’t trust she wouldn’t try to find other ways of trying to hurt him. She had already ordered Ina’s death as well.

    It was unlikely that they could kill Dice without losing himself, or possibly Ina. He had no means of killing the other members of the party at range. He could run, but there would be no protection for his parents. His influence on Dice wasn’t particularly strong, or at least not in a way he understood. She was on her way right now, to first fuck him, and then kill him. His only option was obvious. Its obviousness didn’t make it feel right to do, but he was from the hamlets, he lived in the moment, his overarching goal was always survival. He would be what the grimoire had demand he become, The Dominator.

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As the night cycles began, they stoked the fire higher. He tried to imagine how long people had been lighting such fires in the Wilds, hoping to keep the darkness at bay. The truth was, he didn’t know. The Church was big on teaching, but did not emphasize much about the past. He didn’t know when the settlement had been originally started, or how long humans had been trying to live in the Wilds before that. The Church offered no specifics, and no one really bothered to ask. Immediate survival for the hamlets, and profit in the settlement, were too all-consuming. There were always legends, stories, but they were passed down from parent to child, or through children’s books. For all he knew, the settlement itself could have started as a simple campfire, like the one the party surrounded. Something about being out here during a rotation, left him in a contemplative mood.

    The mood on the faces around him were sour. Dice had attempted to find some time to ‘rest’ with him, but one look from Karmis had withered that particular fruit on the branch. Karmis eyed him more and more, and he grew worried. Wersa, thankfully, seemed almost totally indifferent to him, other than an occasional sneer.

The first of the night cycles passed with only one encounter. A mist-fish came sniffing around, though not too close to the fire. Dice had toss some blades at it, but they bounced off its disgusting, slimy exterior. He hadn’t seen one so close before, and noticed it was quite frog-like for something that was supposed to be a fish. Its exterior had a mucousy substance on every surface, and its mouth would stretch incredibly wide as it seemed to gulp in the surrounding mist, which in turn caused it to propelled itself around us a slow space. It didn’t seem to want to come within a certain distance of the fire, and so Wersa offered to throw her sword at it, but Karmis, correctly, pointed out it might bounce or slide right off the thing. He noticed even Wersa was not willing to leave the fire to fight it directly. It was fairly large, certainly larger than Wersa by a couple of times, and quite long, nearly long enough to surround the campsite by itself. He thanked the Divine Humanity mist-fish were solitary hunters.  

    It eerily swam loops around them. He thought the beast was waiting for one of them to attack. Having such a beast constantly swimming just outside the light of your fire, for whole cycles, would cause anyone to crack eventually. He wondered how many similar fires particular beast had circled knowing that eventually it would get a meal either when they attacked or when they slept.

    Wersa spoke, “We can just wait the thing out, it will go away eventually.”

    He wanted to respond, “I don’t know..”

    Before he could finish his sentence, Wersa sneered at him, and he closed his mouth looking away. Wersa was nearly as scary as the Divinity Damned beast, so he gave up on the idea of arguing.

Karmis ended our aborted conversation by casting a offensive fire spell. A stream of fire launched itself from Karim’s hands, concentration lighting her face, to hit the mist-fish. Bizarrely, as soon as the fire reached the mist-fish, it seemed to just pop out of existence. He knew it hadn’t really just disappeared, because he could feel the air displaced from its movement. The wind generated had nearly knocked him over onto his ass and almost put out their fire. Despite what he knew from the evidence, it moved so fast most anyone would have sworn it teleported. Shock registered everyone’s face. The mist-fish had been terrifying, even though he knew something about what to expect from them, but what had really suprised him was Karmis.

    He hadn’t figured her for an offensive castor, or perhaps he had realized she must be one, but didn’t want to think about what that meant. In some ways, an offensive caster was more scary than a Classed Warrior. The Classed Caster was more versatile, with greater potential for destruction. The Warrior was destruction given human form, capable of killing tens of guards or soldiers before being brought down through exhaustion or numbers. Ultimately, though the Warrior was only a single person. The offensive Spell Caster, was a force of nature, potentially able to destroy whole villages if left alone. A Spell Caster with a Path related to destruction would be able to endlessly destroy, and in doing so, recharge themselves. They would only stop due to physical or mental exhaustion. The spell Karmis had used, had clearly worn her out, she was breathing heavily and looking drained. She was clearly not a true offensive Caster, the spell had taken too much from her, but clearly she had access to offensive spells. Just being able to use such a spell was frightening by itself. He checked on Ina, but she had hardly moved, except to be in position to rescue him if need be. He tried to relax, but this series of events had been more horrifying than even he had guessed. He, as a man from the hamlets, and a man who had travelled the Wilds to a small extent, would be considered an experience person in regard to night cycles, but it was hard to be prepared for what he had just seen.

He had technically been out during a rotation like this before, not just in the hamlets, but with a caravan moving from one settlement to another. It was the only time he been to another settlement. He had joined a caravan, offering his labor as a carriage loader for free, in return for the protection the caravan offered. He had just wanted to gain some experience. At the time, Ina had matured enough to be considered a proper lesser beast, so he was a little blindly confident.

The trip was long though, an entire rotation, and so they would have to camp in the Wilds during at least one set of night cycles, but this was a well used path, almost a genuine road, and a small fortification had been built long ago for travelers to use in the middle of their journey. Most everyone but the strongest Classed adventurers had simply sat inside a shelter through the night cycles. The whole fortification had a dozen places to keep fires going. The beasts in the area had long since learned to ignore the place during night cycles. The whole place was a trap for anything less than a calamity beast. He had been terrified at first, of course, but eventually the fortification felt safer than his own home.

    Actually being out in the night, and not in a shelter, or barricaded into a his family home, was a definitely a new experience for him. Most people in the hamlets were frightened of the dark, despite their hovels being rather gloomy. He couldn’t consider himself an exception. There was something like a primal fear, a pressure, that the black around them attacked him with mentally. He tried his best to temper himself, by occasionally staring off into the darkness, imagining what else was out there. Eventually, though, he would shudderingly turn his back on the darkness and stare into the warm fire for comfort.

***

The rest of the night cycles had been fairly uneventful, thankfully. No one had gotten any rest, though. They had heard gargoyle-bats on several occasions, but hadn’t seen another mist-fish. No other beasts had visited them. Perhaps, they could sense Wersa and Karmis’ strength, or the fire was enough to keep them back. The elder viper-wyrm would have been horrible to deal with in the dark, had it still lived. The night was now almost over, but his real problems had just begun.

    Alarm bells went off in his head, not the kind that signified his trinkets had been activated, but the sort of mental alarm that indicated he felt he was in deep personal trouble. Sensing his fear, Ina had crept closer to the campsite, readying to pounce on the source of his current predicament. He had to push her back mentally, sending that he would handle this situation and that she should stay-put, out of sight. He didn’t know how he would handle this, but he would.

    Karmis had beckoned to him, “Join me in my tent, Dem.” Her voice sounding friendly, but her eyes betraying a more commanding emotion.

    “Buh, ahy yu’ ge’ts ‘em, buh ah duhn’ta?” Dice whined when she noticed what was going on.

He subconsciously translated to himself what she was saying.

“But, why do you get him, but I don’t?”, was his best approximation of her words.    

    Karmis, glaring at her, “I need to speak him.” Her voice hard.

   “Ah’least, le’ muh, hab ‘em awf’tar. Ef..

    His translation, “At least let me have him after? If..”

    Karmis had cut her off mid sentence.

    “That is enough Dice, go check on the alarm trinkets, like he showed you, the night cycles are almost over, you’ll be fine.” Karmis dismiss her and once again beckoned to him.

    He shooed Ina away as well. He was somewhat prepared for this. He knew almost immediately, just from their initial meeting, her Path would be something involving interactions with other people. Her attired told him that being attractive helped in some way, so it was always a possibility she would want him to help her advance her Path using the attraction she tried to engender. At the very least, she likely wanted to replenish the power she had used up on her spells and he must be the best target for her Path.

    He sighed, and followed her with a his best smile. At least the night cycles were winding down. It was still dark, but beasts tended to retreat back to their hiding spots during the last night cycle. Other beasts, the sort that hid at night, would be waking up soon. As one danger decreased, another had increased for him here and out there.

    As he she entered the tent, she bent lower than strictly necessary, arching her back, making her ‘assets’ more apparent. She wore a soft-looking fiber robe, her leathers left to dry somewhere, the humidity in the air had left them wet and sticky. The robe was a little tooshort, and he got a full side view of the large globe of her left buttocks. Before entering, he took another big breath, hoping to gather strength. She was attractive certainly, but far too scary for him to have any real interest in. Ina was scary in primal way, but exciting, Karmis was just plain terrifying, a definite killer and manipulator.

    He lifted the tent flap, and entered. The tent was large enough for two people to comfortable sit on chairs, and still sleep several people. There was only one chair in the tent, and Karmis sat in it. He moved close enough to face her and sat down on a cushion waiting. As he waited, Karmis eyed him up and down, like a piece of meat. He didn’t really mind, it sort of reminded him of the look Greer had given him, but he worried what she would ask him to do. If he displeased her, and she was able to cast a spell, he might not even make it from the tent alive.

    She crossed her legs, giving him a full view, of.. well, everything right at eye level. Her robe slipped lower in front, her breasts nearly exposed. She looked at him judging his response to her wardrobe malfunction. He tried to look as interested as possible. Everything about her was sexually stimulating. She even reeked of it, his nose twitching. He still found himself too scared to be really excited.

    Finally, she reached for him, touching him on the shoulder, and looking him in the eye with a sultry smile. He felt her cast another spells, but it had zero effect on him. Before he felt the spells she cast connect with him, but they were resisted. This time, probably thanks to advancing his Path and exploring his Class, the spell simply disappeared into nothingness.

    She frowned and spoke, “How are you doing that? Be honest, no evasion.”

    Well beastdung, this was bad. What could he say? He had to make up something plausible.

    “I.. once wanted to be an initiate of the Church…” He didn’t know where to take this, but it was the first thing to come to mind. Priests were resistant to mental manipulation generally. Caius had used it as an excuse to explain why he needed to drink so much to get drunk. Caius’s  mind had been trained. It would automatically try to resist intoxication or anything else that might affect his mental state.

    “Caius, the settlement Priest, taught me something.. to strengthen my mind..” He knew didn’t sound exactly convincing, but he supposed it was plausible. He decided to double down.

    “The Tamer bond also affords.. the Tamer some mental resistance through melding of minds with a  beast.” This was total beastdung, as far as he knew, but it was unlikely she was an expert on Tamer bonds.

    Karmis stared at him, weighing his words. Her robe had slipped all the way off in front, when she reached to cast a spell on him earlier. Her breasts hung down, her nipples a light pink, hard in the cool night air. Eventually, with a sigh, she moved off her chair and pushed on his chest until he laid on his back. He stretched out his legs, and she moved over them, to straddle him. She was surprisingly light. Her robe slipped the rest of the way off, but he hardly noticed, as he was looking at her too-perfect face. It consisted of rounded planes, high cheekbones, full lips, and arched eyebrows, all framed by the dark red of her hair.

    Gyrating her hips slightly while she sat on him, she spoke then, “Boy, you have what I need. My spells may not work, but my body is a wonderous thing isn’t it?”

    Her voice sounded deeper, older, than he remembered. It vibrated through him.

    She bent low over him, her hands roaming across his chest, bringing her lips as close to his ear as her bust would let her. “Boy, just lose yourself in my embrace, I have need of you.”

    He could feel the sharpness of her nipples stabbing him, and soft weight of her bust weighing him down. Her hips seeming to widen and engulf his. His mind was a little fuzzy, but the underlying fear he had earlier was still a constant pressure on his mind that kept his thoughts clear. His problem now was how to respond. Was he supposed to lose himself to lust and ravish her, or was he supposed to be charmed into such a state of lust she could have her way with him in whatever way she desired. He had never put so much thought into sex before, as his life was literally on the line. He needed to act within her expectations and elicit no further suspicion, but didn’t know how to do that.

    Karmis must have interpreted his stillness for whatever she had been looking for, because she began to undress him then, her hand reaching for his pants, untying the knot, and sliding them down. She stopped dead, though, her face suddenly a mask of fury. She was looking at his ‘tool’ as Dice had called it, and it hadn’t.. responded quite the way she thought it would. She looked at him and began to speak, but he suddenly spoke, cutting her off.

    “Karmis, you’re the most beautiful woman I have ever seen, but…ah.. I’m nervous you see, and ah…”

    “Do you prefer men, you bastard?”

    “No, no, ask Dice about that… ah.. That was the wrong thing to say…”

    She slapped him hard in the face. In response, all he could do was school his emotions, showing not the slightest bit of anger or rebellion.

    His voice meek, “Perhaps if you were to..  or I could… maybe give me some time and I can..” He couldn’t even complete a sentence to make up some kind of excuse, her glare had him pinned.

    “Boy, I haven’t had to work this hard for it in a long, long time. Fine! At least return the favor.”

    She turned her body, smothering his face with her posterior, angling in a particular way to give him access, while she went to work on the other end of him. He did the only thing he could, though he took no pleasure in it.

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“You were in a tavern? You were there to kill a member of another party? Someone hired you to get revenge?” Making sense of her stories was never easy

“Yuh, buh Ka’miss ‘ook the ‘andsome uhns ‘way. Ka’miss ‘eft muh tha ug’ee ‘ig uhn.”

“I see, so Karmis lured the handsome one’s away and left you a ugly big one. To fight?”

She chuckled at me, “Ah, fout ‘im wi’ muh ‘lace. Ah wuh z’ore ‘ur ‘ree yikels. Eh wuh ‘ig!”

“You had sex with him, and your place was sore for three cycles. Got it.”

His mind turned in his head realizing there was an important piece missing.

“What was Wersa doing? Was she killing the man you were sent to kill?”

“Nuh, Wu’sa ‘ook tha ‘igst uhn. Eh fout ‘ack, buh ‘ost.”

“Wersa took the biggest one, but he fought back and lost. Right?” She nodded.

  He said a silent pray to the Divine Humanity for the poor man as he came to understand what Dice was saying.

  “Did she.. wait, I don’t want to know. Who did the killing? Which one of you took the man you were targeting?”

He said a silent pray to the Divine Humanity for the poor man as he came to understand what Dice was saying. “Wersa took the biggest one, but he fought back and lost.”

“Did she.. wait, I don’t want to know. Who did the killing? Which one of you took the man you were targeting?”

“Eh ‘ot thar. Eh ‘ame lay-tah.”

“He wasn’t there? He came later? Why did you.. seduce the men if he wasn’t there?”

“Ah ‘illed ‘im ‘ile tha uh’ars ‘ept.”

“You killed the target while the others were sleeping. Is this a common strategy you use?”

“Nuh, Ka’miss ‘ooks ‘em mo’st ‘imes. Tuh ‘lit ‘em uh-p.”

“Karmis is the one who usually seduces them. Which splits them up. What do you and Wersa do usually?”

“Wuh’sa ‘ets thar uh-ten-shun, an’ ah, ‘nife ‘em.”

“So Karmis splits their party, Wersa distracts anyone left, and you knife them when they aren’t paying attention. That is amazing. I’m sure you do a great job.” He flattered her during these stories as best he could.

“Uh huh, ‘ank yuh.”

“So what happens to the ones Karmis takes? She has been eyeing me, you know? Should I be worried?”

“Uh duhn ef ah sh-ud ‘ay, buh Ka’mis ‘ills ‘em sum’imes.”

“She kills them sometimes? Got it, I won’t say anything if you don’t. I’ll be careful.”

“Gud, ah duhn wahn tu’ ‘ooze ’ur ‘ool.”

“I don’t want to lose my tool either.” She giggled as he said that, sounding younger than her scars would indicate, but she didn’t especially look sad at the thought.

***

His influence didn’t seem to be harming Dice, at the very least. The information he had gained had allowed him to better understand who he worked for. The party took jobs in cities, mostly centered around tracking down other adventurers, or people who tried to run from a noble, or anyone with the coin to hire Karmis and her companions. They occasionally took jobs that required murder, which is why Dice had been recruited. The whole party seemed to be formed around Karmis, with Wersa as her enforcer and protection, and Dice as her silent bloody hand. It occurred to him later, after he had gotten a number of stories out of Dice, that Karmis would kill him for knowing all this, but over time he felt more and more confident in his influence on Dice. Dice would be in trouble for telling him any of this, so she had no real incentive admit anything to Karmis. Still, he was under no illusion about Karmis leaving his body out here if she found a reason. No one would avenge him, and no one would look for him. Out in the Wilds, adventurers were bound by virtually no law. Only contracts, like the one he was under, might serve as even the most meagre assurance of his safety.

He had been worried about the beasts of the night, but now he was worried about his party.

***

The night cycles would begin soon. The light began to wane, and the temperature dropped slightly. He had taught Dice as much as he could about the basics of the Wilds. What the different trees were, where to find a core in most beasts, where to find good places to make camp. He had gone over most of the kinds of greater beasts he knew of in the area. They hadn’t found much for hunting while he trained Dice. Ina killed most of the weaker beasts long before they arrived, and the greater beasts were probably finding shelter or preparing for the incoming night cycles. The best thing the party could do was hunker down high-up in the tree they camped in, and fight off anything that became curious.

In the last several cycles, he hadn’t gotten much time for Ina or the grimoire. The former made him feel a bit lonely, Dice wasn’t really a comforting companion, and the latter still gave him an apprehensive feeling. What else would he learn from the grimoire. His Class made him either a monster or totally useless. Almost any Class he could think of would have been more useful to him or, at least, less morally confusing. He could only follow the guiding maxim of the Wilds, which was do what you had to for survival’s sake.

***

He returned with Dice back to the central camp, but it sparked little interest from Karmis and Wersa. Neither Karmis, nor Wersa, had much reason to leave the site over the last few cycles. The scouts hadn’t found much of note, and the two older women had little curiosity about the Wilds themselves. He suspected that Ina and he had already killed the three most arrogant greater beasts in the area, or perhaps most of the beasts in the area were simply in hiding due to the night cycle’s approach. Some beasts found a den and slept through the night cycles, not any more daring to leave their homes than humans.

Karmis always took Dice aside whenever they returned, quickly asking her a few questions. Karmis whispered these questions to Dice, but his hearing made it rather easy to listen in. The questions were mostly about if they had seen anything out of the ordinary, what they had done, and what he was teaching her. She bragged each time to Karmis about her conquest of him, or perhaps his conquest of her, making Karmis angry each time. She liked to give details, which usually made Karmis order her to be quiet. Despite her anger, her interest was mostly in what they had seen.

He quickly became convinced there must be something out here worth looking for. He didn’t dare ask Dice directly, that would be too obvious. He wasn’t even supposed to know they were looking for something in particular. Whatever this thing was probably had something to do with the parties going north. This party had bet on a different direction, perhaps because no one else was coming this way. If they did find something, they would get to keep it because no one would be around to take it from them. It was an unlikely, but safe bet. What they were looking for specifically, Karmis never mentioned, even to Dice.

***

The party had him worried, but the night was the most immediate threat. He asked the party for a moment to explain what he could about what would soon happen. He had Dice’s attention for good or ill, but Karmis and Wersa were hardly paying attention to his lesson. Despite their boredom, he spoke in a serious tone.

The temperature would drop further, the light would slowly extinguish, a mist would begin to wind its way through the trees. The ground would grow wet and muddy. The trees slick with some sort of perspiration. Small streams of free flowing water would form on the ground, winding through the roots of trees. There were beasts that would creep out from cracks in the ground and trees. He spoke of mist-fish, which spent most of its life, stuck to a tree, deflated, thin, perfectly camouflaged. During night cycles it would expand and lengthen, its teeth would grow, and it would ride the ribbons of mist through the Wilds looking for something to eat. Gargoyle-bats, would fly above the trees in huge flocks, each half the height of a human adult and stronger than a lesser vine ape. They mostly preyed on other flying beasts, but occasionally they would roost for a while, digesting their meals on the upper branches trees. Their calls were intense and distinct. Like a thousand torturous screams happening at the same time. He spoke about massive pit-toads that hid underground, with mouths so large, beasts would walk into them thinking them a safe den or a cave. The worst part was what happened to the unlucky beast once it was inside the cavernous pit-toad. Despite the toad’s large mouth, its stomach and esophagus were surprisingly small. It used more than a dozen spined, tentacle-like, tongues, to literally grind its prey into an easy to digest slurry. It was a mercifully fast end, at least. Each new beast he described, set his heart palpitating. These were the cautionary tales of his childhood. This was the information that kept people alive in the hamlets.

He went on and on for while, but eventually lost his audience. They didn’t seem particularly impressed, though he did not ask why. Karmis did prepare some new trinkets and some extra spells around their camp. Wersa brought in a supply of wood for a fire. The fire and its light, would drive some of the more sensitive beasts away. Dice just sharpened her blades, yawning. He spent some time checking on this alarm trinkets, but he wasn’t sure they would work against flying beasts. The spell was oriented towards sound and vibration. Mist-fish made no sounds.

Ina moved in overheard. She would guard the area above their heads. In some ways she was perfectly made for night cycles. She could see well in the dark and blend in even better. She had plenty of time now to get used to her new form. He was pretty confident in her abilities. Night cycles were unpredictable, so no matter his confidence, he was concerned. He was nearly equally concerned about having to spend so much time in close quarters with the Party. Their lack of interest in the night did not bode well for them protecting him. Parties had to work together in the Wilds, and doubly so at night.

    What could he do to make Ina and himself more safe? Monsters out there and monsters here. He could.. use some of his other spells. He hadn’t originally thought there wasn’t much use to them, but after hearing just how merciless and secretive Karmis was, he was starting to actually consider their use. Could he? He hoped he wouldn’t find out.

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Now that they were camping in a central location, the scouts, Dice, Ina, and himself would journey out looking for beasts for the party to kill, or anything that looked like useful training for Dice. With a central location to explore around, and no particular pace to keep, Dice could keep up with him so long as they took rests. He kept Ina still ranging far ahead of them. She had been agreeable, because she didn’t much like the way rest of the party smelled, in particular Karmis. He didn’t really understand, because, to him, Wersa was the worst offender, but he didn’t argue

Karmis had explained what she wanted him to do with Dice, in vague terms. She was adamant that if they found anything interesting, or out-of-the-ordinary, to report back to her. He couldn’t tell if she was just greedy for what the Wilds offered, wanted to cover the costs of her trip, or was looking for something in particular. She didn’t say, and he didn’t want to pry. If there was something good out here, they might kill him to keep it a secret. Adventurers were not heroes, despite the fact that some of their working killing beasts was beneficial to humanity. He expected nothing less from them. The Wilds were a hard place.

***

    His next great difficulty was dealing with Dice. She was agile, deadly, and had amazing dexterity, but needed twice the amount of rests he needed. They took even more so that she wouldn’t be too winded in the case of a fight. They moved primarily through the trees, jumping and climb as necessary. All the resting meant he was alone with Dice often. Ina was far ahead and busy hunting usually, leaving him to contend with the diminutive blade fighter.

    He couldn’t understand most of what she said, so he found the best thing to do was to repeat her statements back to her, and have her give a nod if it was correct.

    “Ah ned a res” She said, her chest hammering.

    “You needed a rest?” He asked, and she shook her head in agreement.

    “Alright, over there is a nice high and wide branch.”

    In a moment, they were both slumped on the branch. Her chest rising and falling rapidly, while he lounged on his back a short distance away. He spent every spare moment thinking about what use was there in being a Dominator of humans when he spent most of his time with beasts. The obvious, and immoral, plan would to be take over the minds of everyone in the settlement and become sort of local overlord, but such a plan was incredibly far-fetched. Even with his limited education he knew there were plenty of powerful Classes and many ways to detect the use of spells. Someone would figure him out, or be resistant to his abilities, and murder him on the spot. His Class didn’t protect him from a sword, arrow, or spell. He was, after all, still quite weak. He could imagine some power-mad idiot, attempting a plan like that, but he wanted to live. He did no even really know how to use his spells. The likelihood of him seriously damaging a person’s mind was high, and so even practicing his spells came at a cost. Could he risk permanently hurting a person for his own benefit? At times, he hated the people from the settlement, especially when he was really young, but later on he had come to understand they were just drive by fear. Fear of having to become his neighbor out in the Wilds. It didn’t excuse their behavior, but he understood it. He lost himself in a series of power fantasy daydreams, usually entailing him using his Class to take control of his life, sadly each little dream was ended by the sobering fact that it would likely end in his inevitable demise. At some point, he was interrupted when he felt something tug at his arm.

    While he had been thinking, Dice had rolled closer to him and was staring intently. Her proximity, unbidden, brought to mind his Dominator’s Influence. He would be spending a lot of time with Dice now. He could ‘practice’ his Influence he supposed, but manipulating her for no reason was.. unethical? What if he promised himself to not harm her, could he practice his Influence then? He couldn’t use his active spells on her, and had no reason to use the Dominator’s Gaze. Perhaps he could just play around with the Dominator’s Influence and Presence. It was part of who he was now, and he had little control of it. Maybe, he could gain more control interacting with Dice? Something about all of this still felt wrong so he made a silent pledge to do nothing that would harm her directly. As he did so, she spoke.

    “Yu’ a ‘ndsome ‘un. Duh yu’ wan’ tuh put et en muh ‘lace?” Her voice sounding casual.

    He tried to sound out what she was saying. ‘He was.. handsome?’

    “Uh thank you for your compliment Dice, let me see if I can understand you.”

    “Do.. I.. want.. to. put it.. e-en-in.. your lace?” His voice was confused. Nothing came to mind to explain what she wanted.

    “Yuh, muh ‘lace” Then she point down to her groin.

    “Your place?”

    “Yuh.” She then made a gesture that made it clear exactly what she wanted from him. As she motioned with her fingers, she smiled at him, rather sweetly. The scars on her cheeks showing them more easily as her facial muscles flexed.

    “Ah, you want to.. have sex?” He only asked to stall, while he thought this through.

    She punched him in the arm, rather hard for someone so much smaller than him.

    “Yuh, ar’ yu’ slo’?”

    “Am I slow? No, I am just surprised.”

    He could feel her hand reach down and begin to work its way into his leather pants, rifling around, clearly seeking something. He didn’t have the time to consider this too much, it seemed to just be happening. He noticed she twirled a blade in her other hand as she stared at him. She seemed to be experienced at using one hand for one kind of task, while the other intimidated.

    His mind finally locked into place, as her hand found what it was looking for. This happening wasn’t really a problem, Ina seemed to only care about other many-tailed, and he might get something out of it. At very least he needed to be in control, to advance his Path, to use this.. diversion to his own ends.

    He slowly reached for hand twirling the blade. If he moved too quickly, she might attack before he had control of the situation. His hand grabbed her wrist, as she sent the blade flying past his head, in a clearly intended miss. His other hand pulled her other arm from inside his pants. He felt a small sense of loss as her hand came free. In the few moments it had been down there, it had been surprisingly deft. He pushed her hands above her head, using one hand to hold them both in place, and rolled on top of her into a position straddling her. She smiled at this. He bent over to kiss her, wondering what her breath would be like, but she stopped him with a scowl.

    She spoke quickly, “N’uhn uh tha’ ‘issy ‘tuff. Jus’ put et en muh ‘lace”.

    He spoke just as briskly, “No romantic stuff, got it.” As he spoke, his free hand began to roam her body looking for the secret to getting her leathers off.

She smiled triumphantly at him, seeming to enjoy his diligent work.

“Yu cahn hi’ muh ef yu ‘ike” Her voice more quiet than usual, still smiling up at him, from the flat of her back.

“I can hit you if I like?” He asked in a slightly raised voice.

“Ef et wu’ll mae-k yuh ‘ard, Ah cahn, ‘ake et.”

“If it will make hard me? You can take it? No, you make me.. hard, I don’t need to hit you woman. As soon as I get your leathers off, I will show you.. in your place..” His last statement, slightly awkward, but making the line he wouldn’t cross clear. He shook his head, this woman was odd.

She still smiled at him, happy as he had ever seen her, but maybe a little disappointed by his last declaration. Why were all the women in this party so strange?

***

    “Yuh gawt a gu’d ‘ool thar.”

    “I have a good wool there?”

    “Nah, ah ‘ool, ah ‘ool”. She pointed down towards my groin.

    “Ah, a tool. My tool? I thank you Lady Adventurer, for your compliment.”

    “Muh ‘lace i’z ah ‘it z‘ore. Gu’d y’ob.” Her voice casual as they kept moving.

    “Your place.. is a bit.. sore? Thank you, you do.. a good job as well.” He didn’t know what else to say to the woman.

    They had been taking a lot of ‘rests’ lately, maybe more than strictly necessary. These rests were less than restful, and usually centered around his ‘ool’ and her ‘lace’, and her being z’ore later. She rejected every attempt he had made to be romantic, or even overly gentle. She wanted what she wanted, making a few initial demands, but otherwise let him take charge. Her flexibility and dexterity made her.. an interesting lover? So long as he did what she asked, she did most anything he asked in return, though, in all honesty, he didn’t know what to ask for from her. She introduced him to some new things, but had no interest in anything tender or soft. Despite the situation, he felt… used. This sort of coupling didn’t fail to arouse him, but it wasn’t what he wanted. He supposed this is how Adventurers were, finding some comfort where they could, but without attachment. A rotation ago, he would have understood this mentality better, that everything was purely transactional, but what he felt about Ina, even his love for his parents, wasn’t so shallow.

The benefits of his time with Dice were not bad. He advanced his Path, he felt ready to at least attempt to cast his Class spells now, though he had no target in mind. Their resting kept Dice happy and compliant for the most part, and it cut down on the possibility of having to make more small talk. When in the act, she could hardly speak, except to yell some incomprehensible profanities at him, so that was helpful. Trying to decipher her.. accent? Gave him a headache.

He got to watch the Dominator’s Influence affect her in real time. They been out here for two full work cycles, only returning occasionally to the camp site to communicate with Karmis. His influence on her, thanks to their rests, was increasing all the time. It was hard to describe, even to himself, what was going on, but he could tell, when he trained her, she followed his orders faster and with less thought. Originally, when he asked her questions about the party, their past history, and Karmis, but she had been tight lipped, even after their first rest.

The first time he asked, early in their time together, she spoke hurriedly and sternly, “Ah, cahn’ta ‘alk uh’bout et. Duhn’ta ah-ssk.”

“You can’t talk about it, and don’t ask. I understand.” He had expected as much. Adventurers didn’t get far blabbing to just anyone.    

A couple cycles later, after his Influence had started to work, she would laugh and tell him stories of the work the Party did. She still shied away from specifics, but the stories painted a rough, grim picture that only made him more worried about what they were doing out in the Wilds.

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    He returned a sixteenth before the resting time was over. He felt.. empty, but rested enough to continue. Ina still maintained a distance away at his request, holding the grimoire for him. When he got to the actual campsite though, he hadn’t thought to make much noise as he approached, and so pushed through the foliage to find himself in something of an odd situation. Wersa sat with her armour removed, wiping herself with a wet rag. She was still clothed, thankfully.

Just as he was thanking the Divine Humanity for inspiring the woman to clean herself, he spied something to the left of Wersa that caused him to freeze. Karmis was sitting on a stool, stark naked wiping herself with rag wetted from a bowl at her feet. He couldn’t deny he was a bit mesmerized by the sight. He was old enough, and experienced enough, that female nudity shouldn’t have affected him, but he found himself watching for a moment.

When you’re camping in the Wilds, privacy wasn’t an important thing, and most women of the hamlets weren’t particularly modest about nudity. It was out of practicality though. This scene was something else. She drug the rag over her body in a bizarrely erotic manner, centering mostly on her massive bust. If anything her breast seemed larger outside the armour, though he couldn’t be sure. He unwillingly noticed he red hair was consistent everywhere on her body. There was something oddly impractical about the scene that left him more confused than aroused. Was she putting on a show? She had a slight smile on her face, but wasn’t looking in his direction.

He backed up a bit, and then made sure to make a noisy entrance, looking away from Karmis as he did so. He gave her plenty of time to cover herself, before looking around to make his greetings.

To his surprise Karmis had been fairly slow to cover herself, only doing so after he had turn around to look at her. She cast some sort of spell, and glowing light enveloped part of her body, concealing it. A surprising amount was still showing despite her.. illusion spell, he guessed?

He did his best to seem entirely embarrassed, instead of the confusion he actually felt, “Ah, excuse me Lady Adventurers. I apologize for intruding. I didn’t know you would be.. cleaning yourselves. Are cleaning cantrips not enough?”

Karmis spoke for them. “Cleaning cantrips are helpful yes, but they don’t make you feel clean.”

“I see, I hadn’t thought of that, Karmis.” Just as he had responded to Karmis, Dice walked into view. He knew she was on the other side of Wersa, as he could hear and smell her, but Wersa’s large form had blocked her from sight entirely until he had moved further into the camp. As it turned out Dice didn’t have the false modesty that Karmis faked. She was stark naked look right him in the eye. Her breasts were small, smaller than Ina’s, but high and firm looking. Her nipples dark, as if to match her hair and her eyes. She was more.. hairy in a few places than he would have imagined, but nothing like Ina. She had criss-cross scars on every surface of her body he could see. One of her breasts had a deep groove cut out of it. The result of some horrible fight and not receiving immediate healing spells. She was most assuredly a deadly fighter despite her age, her body a testament to that fact. She smiled at him and spoke

“Du’n, yu li’k wot yu se?” Dice was as subtle a seducer as Wersa was likely to be subtle as a fighter, which is to say, not at all.

He coughed, “Do I like what I see? Ah.. yes, you’re quite beautiful.”

She smiled again, and said, “Ef yu du’n wan’ Ka’miss, yu c’an ‘ed wit me.”

Translating slowly, he figured out what Dice was saying. She was asking him to her bed since he had reject Karmis earlier, though only the word ‘me’ had been really clear to him.

Karmis interjected, “That is enough Dice, go clothe yourself.” Her tone brokered no dissent.

    Dice simply smiled, skipped away from him toward her tent. He had trouble not looking at the small but firm globes of her posterior, or the scars that marked them, as she bounced away.

    Focusing back on Karmis, who was dressing behind her spelled screen. He apologized for taking so long, and made excuses about testing his new alarm trinkets. She seemed to accept his explanations with a predatory smile. It occurred to him then, they would have had their own alarms spells, probably spelled right into their tents. They knew had known was coming. Dice herself would have the improved senses to know someone was nearby. Karmis’ entire act just now, probably the fact they were even bathing, had been a show. His most important piece of evidence was that Wersa was actually bathing. She must have been under orders. She probably didn’t even know a cleaning cantrip.

   He moved away, higher up, to wait for them to break camp. He thought about Karmis and her theater. Why would she bother? Was it because her spells failed when they first met? Or that he had rejected going to her tent earlier? Did she really have to seduce men for her Path like he had hypothesized? He tried to think about the situation, only coming to the thought that maybe this was a simple change of tactics. Spells hadn’t worked, requests hadn’t worked, and now she wanted to show him.. what she offered? It was enticing, her body had been amazingly curvaceous and virtually flawless, but he didn’t trust someone clearly trying to charm him. Her immediate use of spells when they had met, had left a bad taste in his mouth, mostly because it had nearly worked.

    He felt anxiety and paranoia now. The glorious scene earlier had actually worsened his mood. The only one he could trust here was Ina.

***

    It took them another three cycles to get the central campsite he had intended for them to use. It was on a particularly massive branch in one of the biggest trees he had ever seen. The tree itself wasn’t just taller than those around it, it seemed to be growing on one of the few elevated areas one could find the Wilds. It was defensible, but too open for most beasts to want to make it a home. Perfect for their purposes.  

    The journey had been fairly uneventful. Dice had been continually too winded to join him on scouting runs, but was already improving. Karmis had made a number of enticing comments, but made no further overtures to get him into her tent. Perhaps she was waiting to see if her little show had been effective, he didn’t know.

    The most eventful thing that happened is that he had finally seen Wersa fight. It had scared him to the bone. They taken a slower pace, not in the trees, but on the ground for a while, to allow Dice to keep up, when they had come across a greater rubber-rhino, much like the one that Ina had killed. This one was, if anything, was actually larger. He called to the party to take to the trees. While he and Dice had climbed up different trunks, Wersa had gently tossed Karmis straight up into the air. Karmis landed lightly on a large branch more than more than twenty spans above Wersa’s head. This feat of strength looked like a practiced maneuver to his untrained eyes.

The rhino beast charged as soon as it seen them. Normally, a greater beast would be more wary, but not this one. Perhaps the beast wasn’t frightened because it though it could escape easily and that its tough hide would protect it from any real harm. Rubber rhinos were surprisingly mobile, despite their bulk. He pitied it almost. An arrogant beast, was a dead beast.

   As Karmis practically floated up on to her branch she had cast a spell at the rhino beast, hitting it in the face. This spell seemed to disorient the beast causing it to slow down its charge and thrash around wildly. Meanwhile, Karmis continued to cast spells. These looked like what could only be buff spells. Wersa began to glow with a number of lights, and small physical changes took place. She grew in stature, her muscles not only expanded, but also clearly grew more dense. Her skinned darkened and grew more course. Wersa also, quite slowly, began to cast a few of her own spells on herself.

Finally, done Wersa launched herself at the greater beast with a single step. She moved in a flash, though somehow two pieces of flashing silver beat her to the beast, lodging into its eyes. He looked away from the beast to Dice for moment, giving her a nod in appreciation at her incredible accuracy on a moving target. When he looked back Wersa had her sword out of its sheath and was chopping down on rubber rhino. As she held the sword above her head for a split second, he had noticed it was a fairly dull, if incredibly tough, piece of metal. It must have weighed more than he did. Despite its weight she sent it effortlessly crashing down on the head of the rhino.

He expected the blade to bounce or glance off the rhino, and at very least seriously hurt it, but his expectation was met with a sight that left him shocked. The blade crashed down with such force it shook the nearby trees. When it struck pieces of rhino splatters in every direction. The entire front section of the rhino looked like mashed root-bulbs parted down the middle. Her strike had been so strong it had left a channel empty of dirty all the way down to the tree roots in front of her. On either side of the channel were mounds of pasted rhino beast. What remained of the hind end of the beast, the only part still somewhat intact, had flown backward and smacked into a tree trunk with a mighty thud. The sword was stuck deep into the ground, two thirds of the way up to the hilt. It still quivered slightly. Wersa stopped was now breathing heavily, clearly winded from the strike. She was surprisingly clean, the mess had flown entirely away from her. The air pressure from the strike being rather convenient.

He jumped down from his branch, and began to gingerly step over the piles of mashed rhino that were splattered all around. He honestly felt sorry for rhino, a feeling he didn’t usually have for the beasts he encountered in the Wilds. Ultimately, the beast had been too arrogant and Wersa too strong. He began to rifle through the beast looking for a core.

Wersa spoke in huffed breaths, “Are you taking my prize?” Her voice tired, but serious. Unlike Dice, he could understand her well enough to respond.

He needed to be polite, using her proper title, “No, Lady Adventurer, I merely wanted to see if it had a core for you. I know where to look in beasts like this one.”

She eyed him, but only grunted in response, her breath slowly returning to normal.

After poking and prodding the beast, and cutting away a few choice bits, he found what was looking for. What he saw though, was disappointing.

The core had cracked. The strength of her blade had been too strong and had diffused kinetic force throughout the body of the rhino, cracking its flexible bones and clearly damaging the core. He wondered how she would react.

He would have to lay it on thick, “Ah, Lady Adventurer, it seems there is indeed a core, not every beast has one you see, so we are lucky. Sadly the core was.. cracked.”  

Wersa looked coldly at him.

“What did you do? Did you crack it when you dug it out? Did you drop it?” Her tone accusatory.

He looked pleadingly at Karmis standing not far away. She had used some sort of spell to allow herself to float gently to the ground

Karmis looked angry, which made him worried. These adventurers were rich enough that loss of one core wouldn’t be critical, but perhaps they were particularly stingy. He hoped, if he had to run, Wersa would be too tired to chase him.

As it turned out Karmis wasn’t angry at him,

She spoke in a hard tone at Wersa. “You stupid wench, you cracked the core with that big sword of yours. What have I told you about controlling your own strength. You splattered that beast everywhere. What if it had gotten on me? I’ve told you, for sequences, that you should only use enough strength to make the kill. Look at you, you’re already tired. If this were a real battle, you would have killed a few men, but then would have been stabbed by a dozen more. Use your fists next time. I don’t even know why you use that thing. You have more control over your own body than you do swinging that thing around. You’re old enough to not make these sorts of mistakes any more.”

She ranted at Wersa for a while. Wersa wasn’t looking at him anymore, and was simply looking down.

Finally Wersa spoke, her voice, contrite. “Y-yes, m-Karmis. I will be m-more careful.” She stumbled over her words, but did take the time to finally look at him with a death glare.

Karmis defended him, raising her eyebrow, “Don’t blame him for something you did. He even retrieved the core for you. In its cracked state it will only be useful for making trinkets, but that is still easy currency. You should thank him for turning your failure into a partial success.”

Wersa turned to him, the death glare gone, but a sneer had replaced it

She spoke, “Than-”

He didn’t let her finish

“No, need to thank me great Lady Adventurer. You saved us from quite the hassle with that rhino beast. They are both very tough and very resilient. I should be thanking you.” He bowed without taking his eyes off her.

She merely nodded and grunted at him, turning back towards Karmis, who merely smiled at him.

This fight had laid down an ironclad rule for him. Never fight Wersa, and never let Ina anywhere near her. She was inhuman and spiteful. He needed to stay away from her as much as possible.

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The first to collapse was not himself, though he did have to draw strength from Ina to manage it. The first to collapse was Dice, in a panting pile, at one of his pre-planned resting spots. Karmis, despite her earlier smugness, actually looked a bit green in the face. The vertical, jumping movement required by branch-trails had not agreed with her stomach, apparently. Perhaps, they didn’t usually use their rider trick for all-cycle excursions. Weras looked to be in better condition than Karmis. Wersa looked hardly winded. To his sensitive nose, Wersa positively reeked of leather, old sweat, and blood. Her stench allowed him to constantly train his nose to tune out smells while they traveled, at least. He tried to be positive, despite his own exhaustion.

    They had moved fast, faster than he would have thought safe, but having Wersa behind him, grunting constantly, smelling awful, had pushed him to keep them moving at a significant pace. Ina had kept ahead of them, killing a lesser beast that might have gotten in their way. Their trip had been uneventful. Beasts could often instinctively judge the relative strength of a foe, and so strong parties hardly ever encountered weak beasts unless they were specifically hunting one.

The branch they would rest on was quite wide, more than enough room for for everyone, but he camped on higher branch, allowing a better view of the surrounding Wilds. The adventurers below him had spelled tents that could both expand automatically and latch onto most surfaces easily. Though Wersa was still too large for hers, with her legs sticking out rather comically. Karmis had looked a bit disgruntled when he mentioned where he would camp, offering to share her tent with him. Indeed, her tent was actually larger than Wersa’s, but he had turned her down using the excuse that he needed to keep watch during this cycle’s resting period. She had taken the rejection seemingly in stride, with a smile on her face.

Eventually, he made some more excuses and left. He offered to take Dice with him, but she was hardly able to move. The woman was as agile as a cat, but didn’t have much in the way of endurance it seemed. No wonder Karmis said they were here to train her.

He met Ina, a short-distance away, her face still showing evidence of some light snacking on her kill. They moved in a circle around the camp, putting down the alarm spell trinkets. They weren’t really needed this far from the settlement, there would only be lesser beasts in this area, but he wanted to test them out.

With his chores done, he took the grimoire from Ina and they moved further away from the where the party was camping. He didn’t know what a good distance would be if the thing began to leak something detectable, but if he were far enough away he could move a different direction and feign ignorance if they came to investigate. It wasn’t likely they would move much, as Dice was wiped out and Wersa was already snoring in her tent. He had a couple of eighths before he absolutely had to be back.

Ina cuddled next to him, trying a bite of the field rations he had brought. He hoped the grimoire would finally have more answers for him, and having Ina at his side would help no matter what he learned.

***

    He opened the book, but nothing strange happened. Or at least nothing he could detect. Should he ask the most important question first? He sighed, anxiety flashing through him. He could start with smaller questions before the big one? Would that help? Should he just get it over with?

    He ran his hand the tangled mane of Ina’s hair, trying to distract himself, but she only looked him in the eye, seemingly offering him support. He had explained some of the issues with his Class and Path to her, but she couldn’t really help him directly.

    Breathing deeply, he asked his question.

    Speaking to the book, “I have identified my Path, and I have successfully advanced on my Path. What is my Class?” Then he waited.

    You are..

    Was the book forming words slowly intentionally?

    ..the only one of your kind, the first of your Class…

    He cursed to himself.

    Beastdung, you stupid bunch of cryptic pages, spit it out.

    ..you are The Dominator.

    His mouth gaped open. His head shaking back and forth.

What, in all the Divine Humanity, was a Dominator?

***

    This told him almost nothing. He had never heard of a Dominator. The only silver lining was that his Path and Class would be very closely aligned judging by their names. Just by using his Class, he would advance his Path often. He needed to know more about what he would actually be doing.

    “What does a Dominator do?”

    A Dominator dominates…

    This had to be intentional. The grimoire was torturing him purposefully. He was actually dead, his soul on some desolate Land-Below being tortured for eternity, and didn’t know it.

    ..everything.

    Well that was helpful. He would have to dominate everything. The only way so far he had done any sort of ‘dominating’ had been in the process of.. mating. Would he have to mate with everything then? Just humping away at the entire world? Perhaps he wasn’t dead, but it was clear the Land-Above hated him and the Divinity of Humanity had rejected him.

    Still he endeavored on, trying a different, more specific line of questioning.

    “What unique spells does a Dominator have? Do they have passive spells?”

    Your primary spells, at this time, are as follows:

    Dominate Mind (casted, range: touch, target: other)

    Dominate Will (casted, range: touch, target: other)

Dominator’s Influence (passive, range: proximity increases intensity, target: others in proximity)

    Dominator’s Gaze (passive activated, range: eye contact, target: other)

    Dominator’s Presence (passive, range: self)

    This list at least made sense to him. It was arranged how spell lists were usually arranged, denoting whether the spell was something he would cast discreetly, or something he could have working all the time. He only had two spells he could cast from his class, going by this information. He still had his previous Tamer spells, and some other basic spells the grimoire had imparted, but these two were the spells actually associated with his Class specifically. Having just two, when starting out with a Class, was not very unusual, but also not encouraging. Casted spells were usually the offensive parts of any Class, and were usually imparted sparingly for safety’s sake.

    Having so many passives that would be fueled solely by his Path of Domination, was hard to take. That was a lot of.. mating he would have to do. He snorted at his own realization. He supposed he wouldn’t mind that much, but he hoped Ina would let him have some rounds. What if a selfish-lover was what stood between him and his Path?

    Right now, though he needed more details.

    “Give me the specifics of each spell in turn, please.” Perhaps being polite with the grimoire would mean it would torture him less.

    Dominate Mind: Control the mind of another with this spell. Spell controls thoughts, and thoughts control actions. Spell is cast on another sentient being. A targeted sentient being with a similar mental makeup to the Dominator makes the spell more efficient and easier to cast. Spell has a chance for failure based on the mental fortitude of the target sentient. Spell is more efficient against targets who have been inundated with Dominator’s Influence. Spell is stronger against targets who have been inundated with Dominator’s Influence. Spell will be more successful against targets who have been inundated with Dominator’s Influence. Spell will damage the minds of targets relative to the mental fortitude and level of Dominator’s Influence they possess. Mental damage to target, in order of severity, is as follows: loss of memory, lost of personality, loss of complex functions, loss of basic functions, and death.

    Despite all these details the damned book was still being fairly vague. The spell controlled minds? How did it control minds? What were its limits? This sort of power, well, he had never heard of it. He was widely read for a man from the hamlets, but Caius had laughed at him whenever he had put on airs of being actually a learned person. What had Caius called him? A toad at the bottom of a tall granite-tree, looking up, only able to see the trunk and no branches? He did feel that such a spell was strong for a starting Class spell. His feeling stemming from the.. horrible nature of the spell. Why would he even use this? He read through it again and tried to understand its finer points, making notes to himself.

    With the spell he could control the thoughts of people, and therefore their actions directly. It had to be cast on a thinking being, and the closer that being was to him, a human, the easier it would be. The spell would be harder to cast on beastfolk for instance, is what he understood the grimoire to mean.

    People could resist him apparently, based on their ‘mental fortitude’, but  ‘mental fortitude’ wasn’t defined by the spell. Judging by the consequences of the spell, he could seriously harm anyone he used the spell on depending on how much they fought it. They could even die as a result.

    Apparently, Dominator’s Influence improved Dominate Mind in just about every way, and punished him for not applying it to his targets.

    He looked down noticing that the grimoire had finish writing out the text for Dominate Will.

    Dominate Will: Influence the will of another with this spell. Spell influences will, will begets action. Spell is cast on another sentient being. A targeted sentient being with a similar mental makeup to the dominator makes the spell more efficient and easier to cast. Spell has a chance for failure based targets perception and reasoning ability. Spell has high chance of failure unless target is distracted or incapacitated. Spell is more efficient against targets who have been inundated with Dominator’s Influence. Spell is stronger against targets who have been inundated with Dominator’s Influence. Spell will be more successful against targets who have been inundated with Dominator’s Influence. Spell will damage the minds of targets in the case of failure. Mental damage to target, in order of severity, is as follows: loss of short-memory (low chance), lost of personality and animating will, death.

    Was this worse than the previous spell? It looked harder to cast, with more requirements. Once again, Dominator’s Influence, was an important part of the spell. What did this spell do exactly? Dominate Mind was direct control, with a high chance at damaging the mind of his poor victim. Dominate Will.. was more subtle? Either it worked, or it seriously broke the person he was targeting with it. It would help if the person were not particularly sharp or attentive. What did it mean to influence a person’s will? What was a person’s will? He would ask the grimoire later.

    Dominator’s Influence: Those close to you find themselves slowly and increasingly mentally and physically influenced by you. Spell is passive and functions at all times. Spell radiates from caster in all directions, but decreases in effect the further it travels. Spell effects sentient beings with a similar mental makeup to the Dominator more effectively. Spell caster has limited control over intensity, and can increase intensity through close proximity and physical contact. Spell intensity increases over time as influence builds in the mind of those affected. Those affected can reduce and resist effects based on mental fortitude, perception, and reasoning ability. Spell will increase in effectiveness as caster advances down their Path. Current spell strength: very weak.

    This.. explained a lot. Clearly the effects weren’t too overpowering, or he would have had half the settlement listening to his every word just by stepping through the doors. Clearly, Greer was suffering from his influence, but he didn’t think this passive was the whole story with her interest in him. From what she had said, she had been thinking about him for a while, making a plan, but it seemed the effect of his passive had pushed her over the edge, pushing her plans for him forward. This also explained a lot of the reactions he had received so far. Even the man who sold him his clothes was surprisingly accommodating to a young man dressed as he was.

    Was this why Ina wanted him? Why she had have be receptive to his advances? Her emotions over the bond were confusing, but clearly positive towards him. The spell said it was less effective on non-humans and that it was currently very weak. It wasn’t likely that it affected Ina to any great extent, right? The idea that she only enjoyed being with him because of a passive spell hurt him in some indescribable way.

    He kept reading, his heart sinking slowly.

    Domaintor’s Gaze: Spell applies a concentrated dose Domaintor’s Influence to target within range of sight through eye-contact. Spell is passive and functions at all time at a very low intensity. Spell can be activated for increased intensity at increased drain of stamina. Spell must target another sentient being. A target sentient being with a similar mental makeup to the Dominator makes the spell more efficient and easier to cast. Spell has a chance of disorienting, or intimidating, and/or making the target open to suggestion. Spell effects the mentality of the caster. Current spell strength: weak.

    He tried to see the brighter side of this spell. It didn’t harm the target seriously at least. It was probably weaker than the two casted spells by a significant margin but it did give him something to use against another person trying to hurt him. It dawned on him then that these spells were nearly useless to him, as the biggest threat to him was almost always a beast. Using them in settlement would be.. immoral. Using a Path or a Class for twisted ends always twisted the user. The Church had taught that from the very beginning. It was ingrained in his very being. Beyond the moral implications, if he were found out, he would be killed at the very least. Either the Church, the settlement, or the Tower would object to him and whatever sort of awful Class he now had. His safety would lie in being as anonymous as possible.

    He didn’t know what the second to last clause meant, that it would affect his mentality to use it. How would it do so? Another thing to ask the grimoire. He moved on.

Dominator’s Presence: The spell caster’s very existence is found to be commanding and attractive to those within a radius of the caster. Spell intensity decreases as range increases. Spell effects the way sentients experience the caster through sight, sound, touch, and smell. Spell manifests as a permanent change to the physique that costs no drain on castor’s Path or Stamina. Spell increases mental resistance against the spells of other castors. Spell will change over time depending on advancement of Path. Current spell strength: very weak.

   At least he knew why Karmis’ spells failed against him. He considered what he had just learned for a moment, but finally he sighed deeply, and buried his face into the unruly tuft of hair on very top of Ina’s head, as she snoozed next to him. No wonder she liked the way he smelled, it was part of what the book had done it him. The change was permanent, so he had no way of rejecting it now. It was just who he was now. He still worried that his relationship with Ina was entirely artificial, a product of his Class and his own weakness to resist the Path he was put upon.

    He inhaled her musky scent, and rested for while. He leaned on her, as she leaned on him, considering what his Class meant for him in the future.

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He sent over the bond, “Ina… I brought you some clothes. I was hoping we could talk a bit.” This conversation might actually be harder than talking to his Ma. His Ma didn’t have claws

    “Dem, It is good to see you.” She stepped towards him lightly, giving him a whiff here and there. Her nose would probably find nothing but the smell of guilt.

    After finishing her investigation of him, she asked, “Let me see these clothes you have brought me.” Her voice, despite its smoothness, was honestly curious.

    Pulling out the clothes, he described what they were, where they were worn, and how they worn, though the latter part was difficult due to his inexperience. Finally, she took off the makeshift clothes he had made for her, standing before him as he had first seen her, clad in nothing but her fur. Luckily they were pretty high up in the trees, well out of the view of most anyone. She took the clothes from him and, with a little help, was able to put them on. She was confused by the undergarments, but he said they were for comfort. She had simply shrugged, and put them on.

    He had to admit that he hadn’t looked away as she put the clothes on, nor when she needed his help. He didn’t think she cared if he did look. She didn’t have the same sense of human shame he did. If anything he missed her, and wanted to look at her all the more. A lot had happened since he had last seen her, a little less than quarter of a cycle ago. The sight of her was a lighthouse in an emotional storm for him. Dealing with Greer, the Karmis woman, and then his mother was all too much.

She looked fantastic, and deadly, in the clothes, though perhaps he was a bit biased. The bustier covered her upper section in a nice layer of leather. It was pretty functional and didn’t show a lot of her furred skin, but it definitely lifted her bust up, making it look a bit larger. The pants only doing down to just before the hock joint in her legs. They fit great, he had to say. At least she was dressed now. The clothes were meant for the heavy wear of adventuring, so they offered at least a little protection.  

Now came the hard part, he hoped she liked the clothes well enough that she wouldn’t immediately kill him when he brought up the next subject.

“Ina… I have a question for you.” He tried to sound casual.

“Dem, What is your question?” She wasn’t looking at him, but rather still focused on the clothes and their feel.

“Do female many-tailed get.. jealous? I mean if their mates also have other… mates?” He tried to be circumspect with his words, maybe get could get an idea about her feelings before he talked about Greer to her.

“Dem, do you another many-tailed you wish to mate with? Near here?” She suddenly turned to look at him when she said his, her voice like ice.

Beastdung! This was supposed to be a hypothetical question. She was clearly smarter than he was. He needed to figure out how to defuse the situation. He paused for a moment to formulate a response, but in that moment Ina, had moved towards him in a flash. Her claws extended as she moved. She frightened him so badly he fell onto his ass.

By the time he spoke, she was standing above him, her eyes dark and ominous thanks to some shade from the overhead tree.

“I-Ina, there is no other many-tailed, I was just w-wondering how many-tailed dealt with jealousy.” He stammered out his response as fast as he could, hopefully in time to save himself. Technically she shouldn’t be able to hurt him without harming herself, through the bond, but beast Taming wasn’t without dangers. A beast could decide it was worthwhile attack, despite the cost, with the kind of bond Ina and he had. Other kinds of bonds were too restrictive, but offered more protection as a result.

She growled a little a him, “There are no other many-tailed in my territory?”

“No Ina, I was asking because… because there is a human woman in the settlement that would like me to.. mate with her.”

She arched an eyebrow, “A human woman?” She actually sounded slightly disgusted, as if she wondered why anyone mate with a human woman.

“Yes, she will give my parents a place to stay, but in exchange, when I am not out with you, I may have to stay with her. She might expect me to.. mate with her. I’ve been trying to get my parents into the settlement for a long time, its safe there. I’m sure you’ve noticed all of this.”

This was another awkward conversation he didn’t relish, but at least she was slowly retracting her claws.

“Males often mate with.. others, especially if a particular mating is unsuccesful.” Her tone thoughtful.

“They leave the territory of one female and enter the territory of another. Females don’t enter each other’s territory unless it is to decide who is the weaker and must move further away.”

He had understood Ina was pretty set on this mating script from her bloodline memories, but this was a bit much. He would have to try to teach her human.. ‘scripts’, eventually.  When he was honest with himself, he really only wanted to be with her, out in the Wilds hunting and.. everything else, but he needed his parents to be safe to live that dream.

She spoke again, her tone more neutral. “Human woman have nothing to do with our mating. I am only concerned with other many-tailed in my territory.”

This wasn’t exactly, permission, but it would have to do. This did beg a question though…

“Ah, Ina. What, exactly, is your territory?”

She smiled, though it came off as purely a predatory look, as she spoke her next words.

“My territory is wherever I am the strongest many-tailed, and you.”

“Oh, I see. Me too?”

“Yes, you are mine. No other many-tailed can have you, and must bring me all your gifts.” Her tone was less neutral this time.

Perhaps he had gone mad, but he decided to tease her a bit, despite being so close to death earlier.

“..but don’t males get to move on to other territories, and find other many-tailed mates.”

She growled at him, “Other males do, but not you.”

She pounced down him, pushing him onto his back. Perhaps she was more like a human than he originally thought, she was already changing the usual script a little. What they shared through the bond was obviously very special to her. It warmed his heart.

He let out groan, not resisting. “I see. Well I guess I don’t mind. I’m a one many-tailed sort of guy.”

She snorted, something he hadn’t seen before, and lowered her head to take in his scent.

As she got closer to him, she spoke again. “Help me remove these clothes.”

“Do you not like them?” He asked, his mind putting the pieces together.

“They are fine, but they are gifts, so I don’t wish to ruin them.” Her face not far from his as she spoke.

“How will you ruin them?” He needed to tease her more.

    She growled a bit at him, “We are going to mate now.”

    He wondered how far he could push it, “Doesn’t the ritual say the male gets the first round?”

    Her eyes narrowed, and her claws extended. She began to cut into the new shirt he was wearing. It didn’t look like he would get his round this time, not that he minded.

    “Ina, I will help, I will help, Let me take that off.” He said hurriedly.

    As he worked fast to remove both their clothes before she got impatient. She spoke once more, as if to herself, and not to him.

    “You are mine!”

    He couldn’t disagree with her, but then who would disagree with an angry, beautiful beastwoman?

***

    He hadn’t got much rest during the half-cycle before he had to go meet the party. A jealous Ina had been nearly the death of him. A good death, but tiring. He had wanted to spend some time with the grimoire, but between Ina and his own fear of what it might say, he had put it off. There would be ample time once they were out in the Wilds. Knowing his Class wouldn’t necessarily immediately help him. It often took rotations of practice to cast complex Class spells. There would be no guarantee he would be able to use anything from it right away. So far the grimoire had changed his life immensely, both for good and for ill. His Path was radically different. He had gone through some sort of bizarre physical change. He had lived through a couple of situations he where he should have died. He gained a new sense of intimacy, with Ina, something he couldn’t imagine not having now. Just thinking about more changes that the grimoire might bring, made his guts flip upside down.

He left a pouch of silver for his parents with the last of what he had. Either he would make gold on this trip, or he wouldn’t need the silver anyway. He put the grimoire in an old sack and had Ina carry it tied to her back. She would range ahead and keep herself mostly out of sight of the party. Even if they did notice her carrying something, they would never guess what the old fiber-woven sack held. Tamers often had their beasts carry their supplies.

The grimoire hadn’t let loose any sort of aura since he had first opened. It looked like a used-up, old grimoire at the moment, nothing more. Putting in more time asking it questions was definitely important. He still didn’t know his own Class. Just the idea of not knowing your own Class was absurd. He might very well be the first person ever to have this problem. The thought was amusing, but not a comfort.

He met the party at the Wilds-Deeper Door. They looked more refreshed than he felt. They hadn’t had a ferocious beastwoman ‘claiming’ them through their rest, he supposed. Both Dice and Wergas looked the same, their leathers and armors the same. Karmis had exchanged her dress for a functional leather suit, along with an armoured mantle and hood. An armoured headdress hung at her waist. He had heard of this, spell-castor armor was light-weight and heavily spelled. It was designed to protect heavily against physical attacks to vital areas like the neck and head. Karmis’ mantle was asymmetric, dipping down over her heart to form a heartguard. The armour was a deeper red than her previous dress. It must have cost a fortune, though he had no way of judging such a thing.

They walked casually until reaching the end of cleared area outside the settlement. Ina materialized out of the shade of a tree, showing herself as he had asked her to do. As Ina looked at the the members of their party, her tails slowly moved behind her, forming a confusing pattern that hurt his eyes to look at too long. Weras just looked at her coldly, hardly reacting. Dice had nearly gone for her blades, but had stopped herself. Karmis just smiled charmingly, and then gave him a stare.

She spoke, “What a lovely beast. She is quite beautiful. You’re a lucky Tamer.”

He responded politely, “Thank you for your kind words, I will pass them on to Ina.”

Her compliments were more like barbs full of implication. She was all but suggesting he was a pervert, but of course they were true, so he simply ignored them.

“Indeed. Did you have things you needed to tell us before we begin?” her voice, despite the question, sounding like a command.

“I have a route planned and a number of good places for resting. My only question is how fast we will move. Do you have some extra means?” He looked at Karmis, making his implication just as clear as she had previously made hers.

She laughed, “You are worried I will be too slow? Wersa, show him.”

Wersa grunted, and knelt on the ground, her back to Karmis. For the first time, he noticed Wersa had some leather hanging from the back of her armour. Karmis gingerly threaded the toe of her boot through a leather loop low on Wersa’s armor, she then grabbed another loop higher up Wersa’s back, before pull herself up. Finally, she threaded her last boot through an identical loop to the first.

Karmis intended to use Wersa as a steed. He had never considered such a thing, but he had to admit she looked like a rider on a fine mare. Wersa’s lack of heavy armour made more sense in this context. She wanted mobility both for herself and her rider.

Wersa stood smoothly, while Karmis seemed to be concentrating to cast a couple of spells on them both. Dice didn’t bat an eye at of this, she must have seen this little trick some time before. He did notice Dice would stare at him every time he looked away. Where Karmis was direct, Dice was.. less so. He sighed, starting to cast spells on himself. He hoped he could keep up with the Warrior.

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“Are you alright Greer, I did not intend to anger you..” He tried to sound contrite.

“You lied to me! When you find good things out there, they need to be sold through me!”

He couldn’t tell if she was seriously angry about the possible loss in profits, or just needed an excuse to cover her jealousy.

“Ah, Greer, believe me that I had nothing to sell you. You know Ina is a glutton. Whatever this was drew her in quickly. She gobbled it down faster than I could say anything over the bond.”

Greer seemed to consider his words, “Alright, but if you are going to.. live with me, you need to always be honest with me. No more leaving out details.” One of her hands had moved to his chest as she spoke, it began to roam towards his collarbone.

He was thankful, she wasn’t so mad she would threaten their ‘deal’, but she clearly wanted a little something from him in return for the unhappiness she felt.

He put his hands on her hips, and drew her closer.

“Of course, I will tell you everything, Greer. You can trust me, you’ve known me a long time.” He started to lean his head down, focusing on her lips. She closed her eyes, waiting.

He kissed her, with as much passion as he could muster, using what little repertoire he had developed. Her arms wrapped around his neck. She pulled herself up and him down  slightly, so that they could kiss a little easier. He was still a head or more taller than her.

He needed her to work hard for him while he was gone, finding his parents a place to stay, so he decided to give her something more to think about. His arms wrapped further around her, as they shared a kiss, and pulled he her close enough that her legs began to part slightly around his right leg. Her groin grinding against him, first slightly, and then with greater force. She whimpered a bit, as they continued to kiss. He hoped this was good enough.

    Finally, he withdrew, her tongue was reluctant to let him go.

She sighed, “Demneh.. perhaps.. you could stop by my home a little later before you leave with the party?” She looked him in the eye, with a hopeful look on her face.

He gripped her a little harder, “I’m afraid I won’t have time, I have many things to do before I will be ready to go. I needed to also talk to my parents.. about all of this. They are a bit stubborn if you remember.” He paused for a moment, drawing closer for a moment.

In a husky voice he said, “Besides, if I visit your home I won’t get much rest before I leave, will I?”

She chuckled, one of her hands had moved down his back as he spoke and she was now gripping his ass.

“No, I suppose you wouldn’t.” She smiled at that, getting a far-away look.

He sighed, letting her grope him for a moment. This situation with Greer, was absurd. He had no idea she was interested in him in this way. In retrospect, some of her teasing had been flirtaious he now believed, but at what point had she actually started to think of him in this way? She didn’t really talk about her personal life, but he had heard some rumors she tended towards rugged men like Rangers when she was socializing. He supposed, he was something like that for her, but he was also someone she could control totally through financial dealings. Money first, was always her motto.

Ultimately, she had what he needed, and he would do what it took. She was attractive in a way, but close to twice his age. She definitely took care of herself, as she was on the slim side. A number of clerks, from all the sitting and dining with clients, would tend toward the pudgy. Her bust was still high and full. It could be worse, he supposed. He didn’t like reducing someone he respected to this sort of evaluation, but she had pursued him, not the other way around.

After letting her hands roam for a bit, her called her back from wherever her mind had wandered.

“Greer, I have to go. I’ll definitely see you when I get back.” He tried to reassure her, giving her one last full-body squeeze. She gave his ass a last squeeze as well.

“Alright, make sure to come back. I will have something ready for you when you get back. Also, don’t let that Karmis get her hooks into you, you’re mine. My business partner, I mean” She blushed at that last part.

“I’ll watch out. She scares me a bit, honestly. Do you know what her Class is?”

“The paperwork wasn’t very specific. People with rarer Classes tend to hide their information as much as possible. “

“Alright, see what you can get for that core. Having more would speed up.. our plans wouldn’t it?”

“Yes, yes, that core is beautiful, bring me more like it. The contract will punish them if they steal from your, or try to hurt you, but if you really piss them off, they may not care. So be careful. If that Karmis woman forces you..” She looked away for a moment.

“Do what you have to. Just come back.” The irony of this anxiety, about him being taken advantage of by an older woman, was amusing, but he made no comment.

He walked her to the lift. As they went down, she huddled close to him, his arm around her, his hand resting on her hip. Greer had drifted off mentally again. He sighed to himself, hoping all these schemes would work out.

***

    After leaving the Tower, he rushed around buying basic supplies for another long-term excursion into the Wilds. He bought salt and seasoning, for his meals and for ‘gifts’ for Ina. He bought some emergency trail-rations, food that would last a long time. It wouldn’t feed him the entire trip, Ina and he would have to hunt the majority of their food, but the rations would help him through the night cycles. He bought some trinkets for holding spells. Each had a piece of a low grade beastcore in it and could hold a cantrip spell. In his case, they would hold an Alarm spell. He could form a network of these trinkets that would allow them some warning throughout every night cycle. He couldn’t think of what else he would need. It was hard to plan for night cycles, you never knew what was going to happen. In the hamlets, a family might have no problems for a dozen rotations before disappearing with nothing but a smear of blood left over marking their passing.

    Finally, his shopping was done, he took a deep breath, and made his way home.

***

    His Ma was rumbling, her voice sounding like thunder, as her hands flashed in a myriad of angry patterns, much like lightning. She was lecturing him again, of course. He waited patiently for a moment to speak. She had already spent a great deal of time asking why he looked different and was concerned over his health, but finally she had come around to the subject of his leaving.

    “You ungrateful child! Always disappearing.. Why can’t you just be here with us.. or better yet with some nice girl. Hopefully that mutt of yours doesn’t scare off too many of the girls around here…” She was covering old subjects once again. She would disparage Ina occasionally, but he knew his Ma fed Ina scraps whenever she got the chance. She was as weak to cute things as he was, even beasts.

    His Da, sat in the corner, on his usual wooden stool, nodding his head in agreement, though to what specifically, no one knew. Da’s face portrayed his usual flat demeanor. Da’s absolute focus on a singular Path drowned out what little affect one might find on such grizzled face. He wondered what focusing totally and absolutely on Domination might be like, but the thought was awful. He could still fall back on coordinating with Ina some and his various half-attempts at Wilderness Paths, to cast cantrips and maybe his most basic spells, but his new Path and Class wouldn’t allow much deviation if he wanted to actually get stronger.

    Eventually his Ma started to slow down and lose her momentum. He finally found time to interject with the good news.

    “Ma, I got some news though. These jobs I am taking they pay a lot more. I can find a lot better stuff out there now too. I think I can get you into the settlement a lot earlier than I thought, maybe in no more than a rotation!”

    His Ma stopped to look at him, wagging her finger in his direction “I’d rather have you alive and happy than live in that damned settlement.”

    “Well I need you to be in the settlement to be happy, so you will go when I can arrange it. Even if I have to carry you myself by the scruff of the neck.” My voice was firm as I could make it.

    She scowled at me, “When did you get so big? That Class has gone to your head. What would your Da and I even do in the settlement? Where would I put my garden? Your father would probably keel over and die without a tree to cut down…” She continued making all sorts of arguments, but he knew he had won when she didn’t actually say she wouldn’t move. Da just looked at him, his face its usual blankness.

    “Da can continue to work cutting trees outside the settlement if he wants, or he can find work in the lumberyard just outside the walls. You can make this land into a larger garden, maybe sell some of what you grow. Da already keeps it clear. Just because you live in the settlement doesn’t mean you have to stay there all the time. I’m sure we can find work for you if you want..” He was about to continue with arguments, but she interrupted him.

    “Why don’t you take this spot in the settlement? The girls around here would be very impressed if you had a home in the settlement, you’d have your pick! You could even find a nice young lady from the settlement!” She had an ambitious look in her eye by the time she had stopped speaking.

    “Ma, I.. will have a spot in the settlement too, just not with you. This place is just for you two. I can’t live in the settlement without knowing you’re safe too.” He wondered if she would catch on to what he was saying.

    “Somewhere else in the settlement? Where?”  Her eyes suddenly became slits, and she drilled into him with a look.

    She spoke again, when he didn’t immediately answer, “Who will you be living with?” Her voice at the absolute height of suspicion.

    “I will be living with a friend when I am not working. She is the one getting you a spot in the settlement. She is doing me a big favour.” Here it comes, the floodgates were now open.

    “SHE! She? She has her own place? She is helping you get space for us? Who is this woman? Wait, how old is she? What do you have to do for her…” She was too sharp. He hoped his Ma wouldn’t connected the dots, but now she was full of awkward questions he could barely answer. Da was still only looking at him, hardly blinking.

    “Ah, you remember that woman I sell my goods to, in the tower? She has helped me out a lot, as you know. She is willing to help me out in a big way now that I’m bringing in gold! Gold standards! We can all be safe inside the walls. It will be great Ma.” He glossed over as much as he could while trying to sound as excited and upbeat.

    It didn’t work, of course.

    “How much older is this woman? What do you have to do in return for all this? Is she looking to have children?” The first two questions had her scowling, the last seemed to lighten her face a bit.

    “Shes.. younger than you are by quite a bit, only a little older than I am. I’m just her client. She will sell the things I bring in. I will be living with her out of convenience, as she has an extra room. She is definitely still young enough to have children, though that isn’t part of our bargain, Ma.” This interrogation was killing him, but his Ma wouldn’t let him change the subject.

“ Demneh, I don’t want you selling yourself to some old hag for our sake…especially if she can’t have children.” She huffed angrily.

“Ma, she is plenty attractive. If.. we did have that sort of relationship, I would be fine with it.” He just needed all of this to end, so he moved to news that would make her angry about something else.

“Ma, Ma, I’m going back out next cycle. I will gone quite a while with a party. They are paying me a lot to be their guide. Enough to cover getting us all into the settlement for quite a while.” He rushed to get all this out so he wouldn’t have to answer another question about that fact that he was essentially whoring himself out.

“Oh, Demneh! You just got back! This party, they will be just as dangerous as the beasts. Don’t back out there. We will figure out some way to get us all into the settlement if that is what you want. Look at you, you’re so.. handsome now.. you could have other options..” Her voice trailed off.

She apparently preferred him selling himself to going out in the Wilds. Sadly, he needed to do both. Greer, even with whatever powers of manipulation he now had, would not let him be a drain on her gold. She was too money-focused to have a useless man living off her. He needed a good deal of gold upfront to show good faith on his part. She certainly wouldn’t help his parents for free.

“Ma, I need to go visit Ina, and then get some sleep. Goodrest, Ma. Goodrest Da.” He retreated as quickly as he could out the door, before she could start again. His Da just nodded at him, but his Ma was about to her open her mouth again, but he closed the door and rushed away, not giving her the chance. Now came another difficult conversation.

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