fics I read

February 27th 2016 Gemworld 12:00 PM EDT

Once we toured the caves, we headed back to the village for a tour. Amy was blushing and looking a bit dazed, and I smirked a bit internally. I hadn't been able to use Eros and Psych on the journey without being noticed but with my mouth on hers the connection to her mind could be plucked subtly enough that I was pretty confident no one would sense, even Roderick, plus if he had I'd have just pretended it was unconscious because of the moment. Regardless, aside from some detection tricks to make the kiss what she enjoyed, I pulsed a surge of lust when I grabbed that peachy ass, just so her body recognized that it was mine, even if her mind needed to catch up.

Watching the pretty princess follow docilely behind me on weak knees after one lip lock was damn satisfying, though it went against every instinct I had not to peel those soaked panties down her thighs and take that pretty little D rank pussy for a test drive. I had enough self control not to fuck up the game though, so since I had established my value to her country and gotten her all needy, it was time for the backswing,which meant introducing her to my girls. Now that she was starting to get attached she would view them as competition instead of a turnoff, which had been the main point of the cave visit.

Amy was practically humming as we walked back, clutching my arm happily, and I swear I half expected her to start floating from the adrenaline high. When we approached the town gate the guards knew better than to stare at Amy this time, and when I brought her through the gate instead of heading for the orchard I decided to take her to see the least jealous and most easygoing of my girls (who wasn't certifiably insane) Zee. My sorceress had been working on a ward scheme to cover the town alongside Strega, and a few questions to the guards we passed brought me right to them.

Strega, being much lower in my affections and knowing it, didn't do more than nod solemnly when she saw me, but when Zee caught sight of me she squealed my name and threw herself on me, knocking Amy aside as she wrapped her arms around me. I relished the feet of Zee's abundant tits against me and briefly wanted to grope her a bit, but I reigned myself in to giving her a friendly hug, turning my head slightly to keep an eye on Amy. I was curious to see exactly what her reaction to this would be.

Amy was a princess, a powerful magic user and absolutely gorgeous. She was not, however, particularly well endowed. Amaya looked like a supermodel, but Zee looked like a fucking porn star. Those tits, that ass, those bedroom eyes and pouty lips, every inch of my sorceress was built for fucking, and I saw the pretty princess subconsciously compare herself to the bustier girl and find herself wanting. I pulled back from Zee, still smiling, and turned to Amy, gesturing to the other magic user.

Her eyes tracked the sorceress as I introduced her. "Oh, Amy, this is our city's sorceress, Zatanna. She's a brilliant magic user, she's actually a Marquis." She wasn't, she didn't have a bloodline, but she was about the same level in terms of magical energy, if not slightly stronger. I knew Amy could feel it too, which made the look of uncertainty on her face all the more amusing. Poor Amy had kissed her first boy and then he'd introduced her to his fuck fantasy magic girl assistant. I could see her confidence start to crack a bit.

I didn't want it to fracture completely though, defeated enemies don't fight, and I wanted her feeling competitive not beaten, so I turned to Zee and gave a wide and ostentatious flourish. "Zee, may I introduce her highness Amaya, princess and heir of the entire kingdom of Amethyst. Amy here had graciously decided to grace our little town with her august personage, and I for one couldn't be more thrilled to have her." I put a possessive arm around the princess's shoulders as I said that, and her conflicted face turned red.

Zee, being a sneaky fuck like I was, saw where I was taking this with minimal prompting, and proceeded to give her that same beauty pageant smile I'd seen her put on at the restaurant when she was playing sweet little victim to show up Barbie. Stepping forward, she wrapped Amy in a hug, making the other girl's eyes go wide. "Oh wow, that's so exciting! A real live princess, I'm so happy to meet you! I hope we can be friends!" She pulled Amy close against her, and I sadly didn't sense any attraction from Amy for Zee, which would have been convenient. I made a mental note to add that next time I got my hooks into her.

Still, despite the lack of lust, she was definitely thrown off by Zee. I imagined all the nobles she'd met had been all respectful and circumspect. Being glomped and asked to be besties was probably new for her, and Zee had a very special kind of perky that let her get away with things like that. Terminally lonely Amy forgot most of her jealousy and considered the offer before pulling back and offering Zee a hesitant smile. "I...I'd like that?" She sounded so confused it was hard not to break into laughter.

Zee squealed and literally clapped her hands in excitement, a motion I suspected no one else I'd met could pull of without seeming ridiculous but one that just looked cute on her. "That's amazing! I'm so glad! I'd love to show you around with Nicky, I have so many questions to ask you about being a princess, that sounds so exciting." Seeing Zee in human tornado mode made it clear how she'd managed to bend Barbie over and socially fuck her in League circles for literal months while hanging out with the best detectives in the world. That girl was kind of scary sometimes. I loved it.

Whatever training Amy had gotten or experience she had with politics, she clearly wasn't equipped to deal with Zee. The pretty sorceress had her wrapped around her finger within ten minutes, dragging her along behind her and chattering to Amy about all the unique aspects of the town. As was usual with Zee, she talked a ton and somehow managed to avoid saying any of the important things I didn't want her to mention. I considered introducing her to some of the other girls, but decided against it for now, so we just showed her some of the guard facilities.

The guards were outfitted in garbage still, though Levka had managed to slap together a cohesive uniform of cheap plate that at least looked decent, until we could get them outfitted with materials more up to their level, and when we arrived at the training field we saw Sally putting them through their paces. As expected, even with Waylon sitting around in the background no one did anything out of line, and the training looked like it was decent. I waved them over when we came withing view.

As they approached I gestured to Amy, introducing her again, before turning to the princess. "Amy, this is my captain of the guard, Sally, and her boyfriend and second in command, Waylon." I'd kind of expected Waylon to be in charge given how he fucked some docile into the rowdy ex villain, but my bodyguard wasn't really interested in any leadership positions. He liked to relax, and when he did have to go to battle he was more suited for siege breaking than command these days.

Waylon was easily the most relaxed of my people, and it was kind of refreshing that he just accepted his place in the order of things and didn't make waves. Gods knew I got enough pushback from my girls, not that I'd have accepted and shit from Waylon. Sad as it was for him, my male subjects weren't nearly so free to get away with things. I had something of a soft spot for my girls, though I did discipline them if it was needed. Still, I was honest enough with myself to know that if a guy had been half as uppity as Barbie was I'd have killed him by now. It was only cute because of the dynamic, and because of that tight little ass of hers.

Which was the point of all this trouble with Amy. She was much stronger than Barbie, and I wanted to make sure I had her properly conditioned before I actually put her under my control. Amy seemed happy to meet everyone, and especially happy that Sally was taken, I saw her running her eyes over my toned guard captains admittedly excellent body, comparing herself again, though this time she dismissed it quickly enough since I'd given her a reason to ignore the titanspawn as a rival.

All of which became irrelevant when a harried looking guard came bolting up to me. Not from the training ground, but off in the town, presumably on watch or something. He reached me at a sprint, skidding to a stop so fast he tore up some of the grass. Not even remotely out of breath given the lifestorm bloodline, his face was red with stress. "My Lord!" He snapped off a quick salute, which was amusing, before proceeding to ruin my whole day. "We've just received word that a carriage is en route. It appears to bear the crest of house Emerald."

I winced. I'd been kind of hoping to get Amy more settled before Emerald showed up, the fact that they were coming now of all times meant they probably got word of her arrival, which meant they had something prepared for dealing with her. I doubted they'd be stupid enough to try to harm her, but they probably had some sort of political leverage that would supposedly drive Amy off. If they were coming at all they didn't know about the Amethyst quarry at least. To be fair to them it hadn't existed a few days ago, but still it was going to make chasing the Amethyst representatives away nearly impossible, princess or not.

This would normally be fine, because I was covered, but we were on the border, and if Emerald decided they didn't want Amethyst becoming a powerhouse in the region again, there was a non zero chance they would start a war to prevent it, and I absolutely didn't have time for that. Ideally they wouldn't find out about the Amethyst quarry until Graciel managed to trade for the territory. Once it belonged to Amethyst they would lose even a pretense for war, and I doubted they would declare with no viable reason for fear of pissing off the other houses.

Which meant the most important thing to do here was to provide a reason for Amy to be here that wouldn't involve the quarries. I scrambled internally for something that would help, but I didn't have any ideas. I had Zee erect a sound barrier around Amy, Roderick and I. I explained the situation as I saw it, and given Roderick's grimace I could tell he agreed. The timing here was too coincidental. Showing up right when Amy did meant they wanted to ferret out her reason for being here.

Amy listened sternly. Her face more serious than I had seen it. She bit her lip in worry before her expression hardened and she nodded. "Well, they want a reason for me to be here, we'd better give them one so distracting they have no choice but to ignore everything else. I'm sorry to do this to you, we can cancel the arrangement later so it doesn't effect your life, but this is the best way to keep everyone safe." She reached into her pocket and grabbed an Amethyst, an E grade one at that. She closed her hand around it, and when she opened it I could see a pair of rings on her open palm, perfectly and intricately shaped. "Nicholas Lord. In my capacity as the heiress of house Amethyst I propose a union of our bloodlines. Do you accept my betrothal?" Huh. Well, now my whole plan just kind of felt unnecessary.

February 27th 2016 Gemworld 1:00 PM EDT

I hadn't been expecting things to go like this. I wasn't against it, marriage wasn't a huge deal, much less permanent than my Brand was as far as I could tell. It would even help with my plan, making getting close to her much easier, and give me an identity here I hadn't literally made up on the spot. There were about a thousand advantages to agreeing to a betrothal with Amy, and I was probably going to do it. There was just one thing about it I didn't like. MY FUCKING PLANS WERE ALL WRECKED!

I'd been slowly bringing her around, wrapping her around my finger. I could still do that, no doubt, but it was going to be much harder to get her enamored enough to feel like I would be a good husband as soon as I'd been hoping to leave. Now I'd have to slow court this bitch, and it was going to take me weeks longer than expected. I'd been counting on sex to seal the deal, but while I could have arranged to get her away long enough to fuck her when we were just two people, the royals would doubtless have countermeasures against the impending prince consort getting some before the wedding.

Still, it was an answer to the current problem. At the very least it would but me time to gather the points I needed for my plan, even if that time would be spent trying to placate Barbie, who was almost definitely going to lose every ounce of her shit over this. For the moment though, we had to play this smart. I needed to give Amy a reason to be here that didn't cause house Emerald to look too hard, otherwise they could get wind of the quarries before they agreed to turn over the land. Amethyst needed these quarries, and I didn't think Graciel would have another option than to declare war to get them, especially given the magically contractual need to protect me when I was supplying them.

As such my only option was to say yes and hope we could steer this situation away from devolving into a literal warring states situation that would seriously fuck with my ability to get out of here. If I had to force Amy to take us home in the middle of a war it would basically ruin any chance of a cordial relationship. I'd end up micromanaging the shit out of her until she found some loophole to fuck me over with, and it would possibly prevent me from exploiting the resources here for the money and power I was hoping to use them to accrue.

I reached out and took the rings, kneeling down in front of her. I took one ring and slipped it on her finger. If I had to roll with this shit I might as well keep all my hard work going. I'd have to keep stacking brownie points anyway, stupid to burn my good will with a tantrum because things took a turn. I knew she was probably planning this to be temporary, just a for show engagement she could cancel after they left, but the only thing worse for me than not doing this would be doing it and letting her walk it back. If she cut the engagement she would feel all awkward and try to distance herself which I had even less time for.

So I put on my most earnest expression, not too eager but serious and hearfelt, and slipped the ring onto her finger. I wanted to take control back of the situation, and making a production of accepting would help. "It would be my honor, princess Amaya of house Amethyst, to betroth you to my house." I changed the wording slightly, which I bet she would have caught if she hadn't been all weak kneed at the romance of the moment. She'd been expecting a business transaction and was getting flustered.

The word choice there was actually extremely important. Marrying her into MY house made her a Lord. Marrying into hers made ME an Amethyst, and I absolutely wasn't putting up with that shit. I liked my name, and having to introduce myself as Nicholas Amethyst would be embarrassing, not to mention they would probably try to restrict me to gemworld or something. Doing it this way would be easier for my long term plans, I just had to hope she was too distracted by this whole mess to rebuke me.

She was, and I heaved and internal sight of relief as she let me slip the ring on her finger with a blush. I almost groaned at her for getting all twitterpated while we had shit to deal with, but I'd been banking on that exact flightiness so I couldn't really complain. I stood up and turned to the guard. "Lead us to the envoy." The former bandit had been standing around silently, and now that he had a job again he rushed off, trusting us to follow, which we both did. I wanted to try to intercept the envoy before they entered the town. It was a show of strength to grant them entry as opposed to letting them take it.

With Amaya here and the new connection between us I wasn't too worried, but Emerald WAS technically the owner of this land so I was hardly willing to let the bastards get an inch they might try to leverage into a mile. Amy looked torn between flustered and giddy, which seemed poorly timed to me, but would at least help sell the lie when they got here. I already had a headache from imagining the fallout of this whole clusterfuck of a day. I had so many fucking plans to revise, and that was in a vacuum. I had no clue how Graciel would take this.

If I wanted to keep the engagement I doubted she would break it outright. Probably just give me some impossible task to do to prove myself or some shit. It was the last thing I had time for but Amy was my ride home and future meal ticket. I'd have to make the trip back to Amaranthine after this to talk through the politics of this mess. At least it would get me away from Barbie for a bit. Plus having shown Amy the quarries and proved my capability there at the very least they would have to treat me like a trade partner as the contracts specified.

When we arrived at the gate, it was just in time to see an ostentatious green carriage drawn by a bear bade of polished gray stone trundling down the road. I blinked at the sight, but remembered Emerald were beast tamers, so this was probably the beast of whoever was in the carriage. Knowing Amy wasn't as familiar with the rest of Emerald as she was with her one friend, I turned to Roderick. "Hey big man, you have any clue who we're about to be dealing with? Be nice to know exactly what we're dealing with."

Roderick, whose gaze hadn't gotten less unhappy, but had gotten slightly more confused by having to actually trat me respectfully since I was theoretically in his chain of command now, just nodded with a frown. "Earl Cesare. He's...problematic. They use him to make visits to the outer edges of the kingdom. He's known to be somewhat unrestrained, and his reputation keeps the smaller Baronies in line. It isn't exactly a good sign he came, though he isn't a threat to princess Amaya with me here, obviously."

I grimaced. Provincial governor who abused his charges to make himself feel powerful. Annoying when you were one of his charges. I should be protected, but worst case I might have to fight that bear, and given Thud was E rank while Malcolm was just F, that might be a D rank animal. I was strong but I doubted I had that much fight in me. I'd have to lean on Amy and Roderick here. I was suddenly much happier I'd accepted the engagement. Annoying problems or not, this was going to be much easier with a tangible reason to lean on Amethyst.

They would have helped either way I'm sure, but their aid would be much more thorough now that their reputation was tied to mine directly. Assuming Cesare was stupid enough to try to start shit anyway. Even odds on that though. Bullies tended to be overly prideful, and it wouldn't be a shock for him to try to establish dominance in some oblique way to preserve his 'honor' or some shit. I'd have to meet him first and get a feel for him to know for sure. Maybe power hungry dicks who love to smash people under their boots were different in Gemworld...not. As the carriage came within range, I used appraisal on the bear though, just to see what we were dealing with.

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure detected. Mountainrock Sovereign- D rank Earth Spirit Bear. An indomitable foe with an unbreachable hide, the Mountainrock Sovereign boasts a near perfect defense for its rank. Despite being a bit slow to move, the beast is akin to a walking fortress, such that even C ranked enemies may have trouble injuring it.]

Huh. Well first off, that Sovereign thing was apparently it's name, which made me immediately label Cesare a giant fucking tool. Second of all it was apparently a full on tank. I'd seen from Waylon that hyper specialized abilities high enough up the spectrum of rank could transcend it a bit. I was guessing this bear just barely edged into C rank territory in defense, which was irrelevant because it meant that I had literally nothing that could even scratch this fucking thing. I made a mental note to fix and upgrade that hammer for Waylon. It would be perfect for this big bastard, but for now I had an annoying meeting to get to.

Within a few minutes the carriage showed up at the gate, and my guards stepped up to halt it, clearly unaware of the horrifying monstrosity of a bear they were getting in the way of. I made a mental note to have the 'don't judge a book by its cover' talk with the bandits. That thing might be around the size of a normal bear but it was infinitely scarier than Waylon's massive terror croc form. Fucking bandits had no survival instinct. Luckily, the bear stopped instead of stepping on my men and making bandit wine. Once it did, the driver hopped down and scurried to the door to open it up.

The man who stepped out of the thing was...easy to dislike. He head a prominent nose, hawkish green eyes, blonde hair with a goatee and generally seemed to be sneering at everything all the time. He kind of reminded me of pictures I'd seen of Oliver Queen, and my momentary fleeting desire to impregnate his wife if he had one drowned out all the annoyance before I refocused on him, appraising the noble real quick to get an idea what I was dealing with.

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure detected. Cesare of Emerald- E rank Emerald Noble. A vain, petty member of the Emerald kingdom aristocracy, Cesare was banished from polite Emerald society because of his excessive cruelty and deviant sexual tastes, which resulted in the deaths of multiple maids and servants, and eventually the daughter of one of the Emerald side branches. Having crossed a line but not enough of one to warrant execution Cesare was sent to the border to oversee the lesser territories.]

Ah, so a total asshole then. No one that full of themselves was going to be shy about being a dipshit in front of Amy. I was positive he would make some kind of power grab or try to put me in my place. Whatever the case may be I doubted he would be able to do much with Roderick around to handle the bear. I could deal with him personally if he started shit, so mostly I was just curious about the political ramifications of this little visit. Time to see if Emerald was going to buy me as the newest potential member of the Amethyst royal family.

February 27th 2016 Gemworld 2:00 PM EDT

Cesare was, to my absolute lack of surprise, a smarmy arrogant dickbag. To be fair, I was at least two of those things on any given day, but I was rarely all three, so I figured I had a good reason to hate the guy. When he stepped down the first thing he did was look around at my town and sneer. "Ah, what a..." He trailed off, noticing that I had an arm around Amy, his eyes narrowed a bit but he pasted on a greasy smile. "Quaint little town. I take it you are the owner of this hamlet?" His tone was probably supposed to be charming, but to me he was just broadcasting 'I am an asshole, punch me in the dick' with every word.

I didn't show my annoyance on my face. I'd been around dickheads my whole life, and learning not to snarl at them was an important skill for anyone. Revenge was best taken when you could utterly destroy someone. Unless you could just kill them and not have to take it at all, but that wasn't the case here. I gave him an affable smile. "I am. My name is Nicholas Lord, welcome to Lord Town, how may I help you, Sir...?" I trailed off, looking politely puzzled, as if I didn't know who he was.

Cocky assholes like Cesare don't like being unknown. He was here in a carriage pulled by a fucking D rank beast, it was obvious he was putting on a show, though I suspected that was just his natural disposition rather than any specifically aimed provocation. Still he wasn't the type to take being dismissed well, and he would see this as a dismissal more than anything else. Amy was here, and he would assume I would have asked her about him. He could assume that she didn't know him, but that would hurt his pride even worse, so he would probably just blame it on me.

His greasy smile became strained. "Cesare of Emerald. Your current overseer. Seeing as this is Emerald territory I came to see exactly who was building such a settlement and taking away members of other villages in the area. As a subject of Emerald, you would naturally be expected to come to Verdigris to pay your respects to Lord Emerald. Since you are a recent arrival however, and in light of your impressive showing as a landowner, I was sent to give you a...gentle reminder, to attend the royal court and present yourself."

Yup. There it was. It was the only smart call here. Theoretically unless Amy wanted to start a war there was no hard counter to this tactic. This WAS Emerald territory, and she couldn't interfere in that under normal circumstances. Even with our obvious connection if she tried to stop them from taking me away it would be considered interference in another domain and wouldn't be taken well. Chances were they would pressure me into giving up what the

Amethyst kingdom wanted and if I didn't cave maybe disappear me into a dark hole and claim I left.

Unfortunately for this asshat, we were aware of that possibility, hence the crazy spur of the moment proposal. She seemed to take great pleasure in pulling me against her as she smiled up at him. "Ah, I'm afraid that won't be possible. My betrothed and I are under orders from my mother to spend as much time together as possible. We need to become better acquainted before the wedding. I'm sure you understand." Her own voice dripped the same cloying sweetness his had contained, though it was actually kind of cute on her.

Cesare's jaw dropped, which I enjoyed immensely. "I...I wasn't aware that you had been betrothed to anyone." I swear I heard the click as it fell into place that this little trip was completely above his pay grade. "I must offer my congratulations on the happy occasion. That said, this is still Emerald dominion, it isn't proper for a subject not to pay respects to his Lord. Perhaps you might accompany him?" I could tell he didn't want that either, but it was literally the best option he had.

Amy, bless her heart, decided to play the spoiled princess, which was an excellent counter. "I can't spare the time unfortunately." She pouted cutely, then lit up as if she'd had a good idea. "Oh, what if we invite Emmy down to speak to him in person! I haven't seen her in ages, and I'm sure as Lord Emerald's daughter she would be within her rights to assess whether he might be an asset to the kingdom." Cesare's eye twitched and I saw his gaze slide back to where Roderick was looming behind us.

He cleared his throat. "I...that is, my lady I'm afraid I can't leave without at least attempting to convince your betrothed to come with me. I must obey my orders." I was pretty sure he just wanted to make sure he was beat up enough to convince his bosses he'd tried so he could shove the fault off on Amy, but that played into our hand so I didn't really care too much. His gaze flashed to me, and I saw his jaw tighten. "How about a friendly wager? We can have a sparring match, and should your betrothed prevail I can represent the kingdom to waive the

requirement and invite the princess down to see you."

I wasn't entirely sure I understood the undercurrents there, but it seemed like there was some based on the way Amy's eyes narrowed. If I had to guess it was probably some kind of challenge to her authority. She shot me a worried look, and I just winked at her. "If he wants to spar I'm open to it. Since I don't have a beast of my own however, I request we leave any supplementary forces out of this." I shot him a sly grin. "Unless that's a problem, in which case I can ask Amaya to borrow Roderick for the fight to act as my own support."

I didn't actually know if I could do that, but clearly neither did he because he blanched. He swallowed after glancing at the big man before nodding. "Very well. Leaving behind my tamed beast is acceptable. I am an accomplished duelist, and I think you'll find me a challenging foe, even working alone." He raised an eyebrow and smirked cockily at me, clearly trying to shake my confidence and not doing a particularly good job of it.

Without any hesitation, I gestured out to the open area near the village. It was a large, flat plain at this point, because Waylon had been continuing to clear the trees around here. I was pretty sure he'd been having the bandits work on it too, because there was a lot of clear space, though no bare patches so one of the Emeralds must have regrown the grass. It made it easy to find an open space for combat, and Cesare followed behind me as I led him away from town and to a wide open area.

Cesare looked smug as hell as he came to a stop across from me, noble tunic and breeches topped with a dark green velvet cloak. He sneered at me. "Well boy, I'll let you have the first move." Apparently the simpering was for Amy's benefit and he didn't see the need here. So I grinned at him. Widely. And once my grin reached the edges of my face it kept going as that face stretched and altered into the visage of a dragonkin as I let the change steal over me like an oncoming storm. Scales rolled down my limbs and over my face and neck as horns and wings emerged, and I watched Cesare's eyes grow wide as he saw me transform.

Dragons were considered fucking scary here, and I was pretty sure he wouldn't have been so confident had he known what I was. Still, credit where it was due, he was either too stubborn or prideful to fold. I admit, I was curious to see what the Emerald bloodline could do in direct combat. He had to be capable of something or he wouldn't have been so confident, but I couldn't imagine how it would work. Oh well, the only way to find out was to check.

I fell forward, letting my body draw parallel to the ground once I was horizontal I kicked off, propelling myself forward with wind bursts under my feet and body, using my horns like a battering ram as I closed the distance, my wings cracking the air to push me at him even faster. My bodily control was exceptional, so moderating the charge to make sure I maximized my impact was simple. To Cesare it probably looked like I fucking vanished for a second as I dropped out of his sight line and he had to adjust.

To my surprise, the cocky bastard reacted nearly instantly to the attack once he noticed. Apparently his self congratulatory tone wasn't for nothing, because as I approached he stomped down and a wave of roots came smashing up from the ground to wrap around him each other into a shield, halting my momentum as a met a tangled cage of living wood imbued with E rank magic. I heard the crack of breaking wood as my horns struck the defensive barrier, but unfortunately the magic just called more roots from the ground to reinforce it.

I wasn't sure where they had come from, until I remembered this whole fucking plain used to be a sea of trees. I internally noted that I should remind Waylon to be more thorough with his uprooting. I was guessing some of the roots had broken off when he was pulling up the trunks and stumps and he just hadn't bothered to deal with them. I needed to get through the thing, so I flicked out my claws and slashed at the barrier, honing the wind coming off the swipes to a razors edge to try to open it up.

The wood of the barrier WAS torn apart pretty deeply, but sadly that damage was recovered soon enough. I needed something big to drop on him. After my failed attack the snide noble stomped again and a second wave of roots (fucking Waylon and the bandits were ABSOLUTELY going to dig this whole fucking area up to look for stray root systems) flashed out to grab a hold of me, aiming to restrain but sharp and magical enough that I was pretty sure they would have carved me up more than a little, even with my scales.

I leapt back, spreading my wings and beating them a few times to get altitude before calling vortexes of wind under my feet. Wings weren't great for hovering, but they were fantastic at climbing up and gliding. I looked down at Cesare as he started preparing some sort of secondary root spell. From the look of it he was going to launch some kind of ranged attack like a spear or a hand or something, and I needed to prevent that from happening unless I wanted to lose this battle.

I wracked my brain for any sort of ability I might have, and trick I could use, until finally something hit me, and I almost literally face palmed. I opened my draconic mouth in a wide grin and reached down into myself. I found the Vital Tempest inside me, powerful and deep, though as I had seen not bottomless, and pulled. Instead of pulling pits of it though, I yanked on the whole thing.

I poured the storm into my chest, condensing and compacting it, focusing hard on the wind and lightning, making sure that the life force only enhanced the damage potential of the attack, and when I'd drained a solid quarter of the energy I had at my disposal, I opened my mouth all the way and ROARED. The light was so bright it was hard to see, but luckily I had good eyesight, so I got to see Cesare's terror as the attack rained down on him. I couldn't blame him, not many people stay calm when a dragonkin used his dragon breath. That sight was wiped away it struck though, and the resulting explosions swallowed everything nearby. Huh, maybe a quarter was too much.

February 27th 2016 Gemworld 3:00 PM EDT

The exact amount of power that was expressed by my dragon breath was kind of hard to gauge. Not because of any mysterious phenomena or anything, but because the dust and smoke coming off the fucking crater it had carved in the ground around Cesare was blocking my line of sight pretty thoroughly after that huge ass beam attack. Despite my lack of grasp of the scale though, I was absolutely thrilled by the sight of what my breath attack had done, and I could hardly contain my enthusiasm to do it again.

When the smoke finally DID clear, I admit to being a bit surprised at how the field had turned out, because it was a confusing sight even without the obscurement. There was a huge crater as expected, and the lightning and wind had scoured it pretty much smooth. Cesare was in bad shape, bleeding and burnt, but he wasn't sagging or swaying around at all. He was hanging in the middle of the crater by two of the many suddenly regrown trees.

Apparently the Vital Tempest, even when I poured all the power into the storm aspects, had some side effects on living growing things. Not people, or at least not ones I was aiming to hurt I guessed, but the roots he'd been exploiting had grown explosively (no pun intended). Several branches had speared him through the chest, and he was limply dangling from a pair of intersecting trees. I could hear a faint moan of pain as he hung there, and I made the command decision that this fight was fucking over, then I landed and shifted back to human with a smug smile on my face.

I turned to see Amy staring at me with wide adoring eyes, and I winked at her, making the pretty princess I was now engaged to blush and look away. My whole swagger sort of fell apart though when I felt a draft around my body and looked down to realize I was mostly naked, my wings tail having torn straight through my clothes, which were now hanging off me pitifully. That kind of explained the blush, as much as I wished it was just pure awe. Oh well, I'd still proved a point.

My belt, thankfully, was fine, as was the pouch on it, so I was able to easily grab a new outfit to change into before walking over to meet up with Amy. "So, he's not dead. That should be enough restraint right? Or if it's too much those trees could break 'accidentally'. In the shape he's in I doubt he would survive the impact from fifteen or twenty feet up." It would probably be like dropping a partially cracked pyrex. Once that last little bit of pressure was added the failure of the rest would cause a catastrophic failure.

She turned back once she saw I was dressed, giving a sub audible sigh of relief. "Oh, it's fine. He doesn't really matter in any way, and he was the one who initiated the challenge. While it would have impugned the honor of house Amethyst if you declined something like that, the very attempt opens him up to basically any punishment you want to give. I'm glad you didn't kill him though. Then we would have to send our own messenger to go get Emmy, and I don't feel like waiting for them to get through capital security."

I shrugged. I was still riding high on the power I'd been able to bring to bear. It wasn't like he was a real threat to me. If he tried to use that bear Roderick would kill it, and in a straight fight I'd just crush him again, though most likely in a more permanent way this time. We walked over to where he was hanging, and I waited a minute to see what his reaction to this would be. Inconvenient or not, I'd kill him if I thought he was going to be a long term threat. I just had to find out how he classified me now.

People like Cesare weren't exactly complicated, but they tended to work in two modes, like most cowards. Weak or strong was the default for bullies and the like, but people with soft power tended to have warped definitions of what those things meant. Background, wealth, social status, these things such a fundamental part in their worldview that they would outright ignore something as obvious as an absolutely crushing defeat, convincing themselves that as the superior being they would always triumph in the end.

Everyone had their pride, even whimpering pussies like this guy, and if his pride decided to dig in its heels and insist I was inferior for reasons of blood or privilege, then no amount of fear or force would dissuade him from trying to find some backhanded way to fuck me over. Even upto his dying breath he would desperately scrabble to prove his superiority, telling himself fairy tales about circumstance and how 'blood will out'.

One of the first things my dad had taught me was that behavior like that was a pathetic extension of the childhood fantasy that life was fair. Being a Lord wouldn't stop a bullet if someone shot me, nor would being rich. Threats were threats, and you should act accordingly, no matter what you thought about them outside of their capacity to cause you damage. Cesare, in that vein, WAS a potential threat. Even weaker than me he could easily pull any number of cheap tricks to ensure I died, or at least to try to, and I wasn't stupid enough to let him give that a shot because of MY pride.

I glared up at him. "Tell me why you lost." My voice was a sharp bark of command, and the first layer of my test lay in his willingness to respond. If he thought himself my better then he would balk at listening to what I told him to do. Even if there was only a split second of hesitation, there would be something.

He stared down at me fearfully, and immediately responded, dropping his gaze. "You are dragonkin. Your kind are unmatched at the same rank." The eye drop was good, it meant he was abasing himself, but it wasn't the end. I needed to hear a second aspect of his submission before I would let him live, and as I stared up at him, he opened his mouth and gave it to me. "Your bloodline is powerful my lord. I yield. I will bring your betrothed's greeting to the princess so she might pay you a visit."

I grinned internally. There it was. That was the trick. People with excessive pride needed to use that pride to justify themselves, and by doing so they lent credence to the system it was based on. The entire concept of someone like that deciding you're unworthy is basically a case of them designating you an out of context problem. They tell themselves 'oh, well that doesn't count because they aren't the same as me'. By justifying themselves like that they can ignore your strength by the same logic of unfairness.

If they accept you as someone in their system of authority though, things become much easier. Rather than being an unfair problem or variable, you are instead an example of why the system works. You have power in the same way they do, which makes their own power more legitimate. After all, people have to obey them because of their strength, so them obeying their betters is only natural. It's not a sign of weakness for them to get in line behind someone in the position above theirs, just them being consistent with their worldview.

Since he'd accepted my power as being bloodline based, and even mentioned the strength of dragon bloodlines within the context of that metric, it meant he was choosing to use the 'this is how the world works' justification instead of the 'this is unfair' version. I would still keep an eye on him as much as I did anyone, because I wasn't an idiot who trusted assholes who tried to murder me, but I sincerely doubted he had the stones to actually try anything. In fact, I was betting he would try to suck up before he left, if only to prevent me from holding a grudge. After all, that would be what he would do.

Satisfied I could let him live, I flicked my fingers, tugging on the heavy presence of my own energy in the atmosphere around us and siphoning it back into me. If I'd let it disperse a bit I wouldn't have been able to grab onto it again, but the breath attack was so densely concentrated that it kind of remained cohesive in the air just by virtue of its sheer mass. I sucked it all out of the air, and while I couldn't get it all, I DID manage to siphon out the bit holding up the tree branches he was impaled on, causing them to crack and break off so he could drop to the ground below. I flicked another finger, mindful of his condition, and created a cushion of air for him to land on, one that dispersed on impact but softened his fall enough to touch down gently once it collapsed.

I debated saying something else to him before I left, but honestly I didn't need to. Dominance had been established, and at this point further interaction was on him, so I just turned and offered Amy my arm, leading her away out of ear shot before I brought up a question. "I expected him to fold, but I didn't think he would do it that fast. What about that fight had him so spooked that he had that kind of reaction?" I somehow doubted it was the raw power, for the previously stated reasons he could have explained that away to himself.

Amy just rolled her eyes like I was being silly. "You know as well as I do that breath attacks of a specialized element are a mark of higher level dragons." She gave me a knowing smirk. "You know, you didn't have to show off so much because of the engagement. I already liked you plenty. You might have trouble getting out of it once things calm down if you're too impressive. Though I'm guessing Emmy will be pressured by her family to try to steal you away. Your bloodlines seem pretty compatible."

I wondered if it was a dragon thing or a me thing that the idea of breeding a princess sounded so hot to me, but since I had two women with ongoing pregnancies I made the intelligent choice to squash that desire, especially since I was engaged to another one and trying NOT to start a war. To that effect I wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her against me. "Who says I want to to cancel it. If I didn't know any better I'd swear you were trying to get rid of me." I had to fight the urge to grope her soft little ass, which was probably the second or third most fun to play with of any of my girls.

She blushed and looked away. "I'm not. I mean...I guess that wouldn't be so bad. If you wanted. Just an engagement I mean. It's way too soon to get actually married. But betrothals are a part of being a princess, and I could do worse." She looked away, trying to keep me from seeing her bright red face, and I tried not to snicker. This girl was absolutely doomed. I might have to play along for a while but she was going to be mine. When we got to the town I pulled away. "Alright, why don't you head to the orchard and get ready for your friend's visit. I have to go check on things at home." Barbie was going to be absolutely furious, and I wanted her calmed down before they met. I suspected I'd be putting my redhead through the ringer to calm her down, but I didn't mind. She'd be a better fuck pissed off anyway.

February 27th 2016 Gemworld 8:00 PM EDT

When I got back to the house, I noticed that the lights were mostly out. I'd put this off for hours, checking on a few things around town to drag my feet. Barbie was...difficult. She was intelligent, driven, focused, and exceptionally useful to me. She was also willful, stubborn, jealous, and generally bratty about most of the things I did. I'd MOSTLY trained the second set of characteristics out of her, or at least arranged for other outlets for them, but not all of them, and they were definitely going to be making an appearance.

Despite all of that though, I felt...an urge. A slight desire to make sure she wasn't too upset. Not anything extreme, not enough to genuinely derail my plans, but the sex was good, and she was a valuable asset. When it came down to it though, the reason wasn't anything as logical or clear cut as that. She was MINE. Barbie BELONGED to me. Body and soul. I could make her do anything I wanted, but mind control wasn't true ownership. If I had to force her to obey me I had failed, and I didn't fail at anything.

This put me in a position that I didn't enjoy. I felt...not bad, but, unpleasant, about the necessity of the actions that led me here. I would make them again, because they were the best ones I could find but I didn't want to deal with her being upset and dragging down my town and household with her petty sniping. If I forced her to stop she would just get passive aggressive and actively work to sabotage me, so I had to appease her somehow, but the fact was, I had no fucking idea how I was supposed to do that.

I was good at manipulating people. I had learned from the best, and probably had some natural talent, but I could make people do the things I wanted them to. I knew how to make people do things, I even know at a basic level WHY they did those things, because if I didn't I couldn't do my job. I was convincing, sometimes charming, sometimes ruthless, but more than anything I was detached. I wouldn't claim I didn't have emotions. I felt pleasure at a job well done, I felt lust, I felt satisfaction, I felt anger, and rage, and annoyance.

I did not however, feel things that I knew some other people felt. I didn't feel compassion.I didn't feel sympathy, beyond a passing acknowledgement that someone was unfortunate for being in a situation in the first place. I didn't feel the sense of attachment that Barbie felt to me, though I DID feel attached, if only by my ownership of her, which was in and of itself anomalous for me. Because I didn't feel those things, I didn't understand them. Not really. I could elicit them if I was careful, I could abuse them. But things like that were, at their core, illogical, and by their nature couldn't be explained. Or so I was told.

Because of that, I wasn't sure what to do here. I knew she would be pissed, I had a passing grasp on WHY she would be pissed. But lacking an understanding of the depth of that anger beyond 'really fucking deep' made it impossible for me to predict or assuage it ahead of time. So I sighed and pushed the door open, ready to deal with her anger, to fuck her into submission, or maybe talk her down, but I wasn't at all ready for what I found.

Barbie had turned her chair to the fire and was curled up in it. Her arms were around her knees, her face looked pale and drawn, and she was staring into the flames of a dwindling fireplace. She heard me come in, but she didn't look up, she just said in a flat voice. "You're back." She sounded...cold. Not angry cold or ruthless cold, but dead cold, like there was nothing left inside for her express.

I found that disquieting. Barbie was a bitch, she was irritating and defiant and needy and sometimes frantic, but she wasn't this. I was getting the unpleasant feeling this was going to go much differently than I had expected, and not in a good way. I didn't like that feeling. Being unprepared was a problem. But it was one I would deal with. I shut the door behind me, then walked over and put my hands on the back of the chair. She stared into the fire blankly, not saying anything, until I finally spoke. "You heard about the engagement."

I didn't fumble or try to explain. Aside from not actually having anything to defend myself on it wouldn't have done any good. I'd address her problem when she voiced it, acting like some simpering guilt ridden rat wouldn't change anything. It did make me decide to do something unusual though. I decided, within the limits of where the conversation went, to tell her the truth.

Something was going to change tonight. She would accept who I was or leave, or at least try, and I would let her or I wouldn't. This had been put off for far too long. I hadn't understood my situation when I brought Barbie into my life, hadn't know about the Brand or how it worked, and since then I'd been reacting. She was always a loose end. The one I didn't really trust, the one I didn't empower. I knew it, and I ignored it, because I liked her. Because I wanted her. Because I was greedy.

But it had gone too long. This loose end was hanging exposed and it would strangle me if I kept letting it be. She didn't speak for a while. "You lied to me." I didn't respond. It was true, but I also had no clue which lie she meant, I'd told a lot of them. "I ignored it at first. The sex was good, and it wasn't my business, and then we had this weird connection and I didn't want to give you a reason to use it against me. Then I explained it away because I started to like you, but I couldn't ignore all the little things."

I didn't interrupt her, so she kept going. "I lied to myself too. I told myself you needed me. That I was special to you. That you might even love me. I told myself that despite all the other women, despite seeing how you acted to them, despite knowing you were using me, were using them. You did things sometimes, to show me you cared, even if you never said it, to show me you wanted me to be happy. I thought that was enough. That I could ignore the rest of it because when you were with me you made me feel special. Not just the sex but being together. Like we were partners. Like we were members of some special club that no one else was invited to."

Her eyes finally moved, slowly, almost weakly, as she shifted them to look at me. "You don't love me, do you Nicky?" I didn't answer. I felt...uncomfortable. I was pretty sure I might be feeling guilt, which was crazy because I had literally never experienced that emotion. I never felt guilty. Guilt meant you thought you did something to someone else they didn't deserve, and people deserved whatever they got if they got in my way. But Barbie didn't get in my way. I got in hers. I'd fucked up her life with the Brand, and while I would do it again if I had to, I wouldn't like it.

I sat down on the ground. "No." I'd decided to lie to her, and I saw her flinch when I said it. So I kept going. "I want you. I like you. You belong to me, and I feel...protective, of you. But I don't love you. I don't even really know what that is. Which probably sounds cliche, but it's true. I just never got that one. I don't...I don't want you to leave. I dislike the idea. I don't know why. You're obnoxious and inconvenient. You're a pain in my ass and my life would be easier without you but you're part of it anyway."

She studied my face, and I knew what she saw. Nothing. I wasn't feeling particularly lusty right now, wasn't satisfied with what was happening, and I wasn't angry. I wasn't feeling anything that mattered and I didn't feel the need to pretend I was at the moment. I usually did, because it made people more comfortable. But this wasn't about comfort. Wasn't about any of that. I expected her to be angry. To scream or cry or tell me she hated me or whatever women do when they feel betrayed. But she didn't.

The only thing she did was smile at me. It wasn't a particularly joyful smile. "Thank you. I don't know what I'd have done if you lied about that, but I suspect it would have been bad. I know I can't hurt you, even if I had the power you could just stop me. But I would have tried. I don't know what to do now. You don't love me. Probably never will. You do care, at least enough to come here and talk to me when you could have just ignored it or forced me to obey. So how am I supposed to move forward? What do I do now?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Do you have to do anything?" She looked confused, and I shrugged. "Nothing has actually changed in any way. You're aware of some new things, but your situation is fundamentally unaltered. I'm going to treat you the same, act the same, and think the same. This is some big revelation for you, but, not to be an asshole, that's a you problem. Your actions going forward decided how we proceed. So the question of what to do isn't one for me. This situation is all in your hands."

It wasn't. I would take steps to stop her if she did certain things. Worst case I might even have to kill her, though the thought made me unhappier than I would have expected. If nothing else I'd put a lot of work into her, and killing her would be a waste. Still, no use counting chickens before they hatched. She was the one who was going to make this call. Live or die, it would be up to her. It was a testament to why I found her so interesting that I wasn't actually sure what she would choose.

Her blue eyes shone with uncertainty. "Just like that?" She sounded almost confused at the thought. "I just...what, pretend I don't know?" She paused and scrunched her nose up. "Though...I guess I don't know anything new exactly. I just unlearned a few things and disproved some assumptions I had." She paused. "I...I can maybe do that. I can just focus on the truth. That you do care about me, at least as much as you're capable of. There are other things we'll need to discuss. If I'm doing this, staying with you, I expect you to be honest. You can use the Brand to command me to silence, but if I'm involved I want to be really involved."

That was annoying but not surprising. I had been planning to be honest. A binding to silence would mean she wouldn't be able to do any damage to me easily, and the show of trust might placate her. I nodded. She sighed. "Alright. That's...alright." She paused uncertainly, looking fragile in a way I hadn't seen. "Will you come sit with me?" She gestured to the chair, and I nodded, sitting down next to her and putting an arm around her shoulder. We looked into the fire together for a while, and I felt distinctly uncomfortable in the current position, not that I said anything. She stayed quiet for a moment before saying. "Nicky? You can lie to me now."

I looked down at her, staring into the fire, and I felt a slight twinge of possessiveness. Of anger at myself for making her upset because she was mine and no one messed with my things, not even me. It wasn't rational, wasn't productive, and it made me uneasy in a way I hadn't really experienced before. But this was something I could give her. She wanted me to lie. I was good at lying. She didn't need to tell me what lie she wanted to hear.

Even someone like me could understand that much. I knew what lie she wanted me to tell. So I did. I kissed her softly on the top of her head like a normal person would in my position, and I said. "I love you Barbie." She smiled softly and cuddled up against me despite knowing it was complete nonsense and I internally shook my head. Despite my insights, I would never really understand women.