NOVEL NEXT Book 4 chapter 19
Hecatolite was bored. Once they had been ushered into the house, which was apparently All-goose's home, the others had started to talk. She had to give it to All-goose, this was a nice place from what she had seen so far; Now if the others would just stop talking so much, maybe they could do something fun!
She sighed, It’s probably important… she groaned in her mind. She had been cozy cuddling with Eryl in the tree, and she would have liked to do that all day! But no, they needed to sit here and listen to All-goose blabber on about some kind of plan?
Did I really need to be here for this? She casually scanned the room, looking at the closed door then the window… she could get out of the room, but Eryl had cast a bunch of spells for privacy, she would likely notice if Hecatolite tried to sneak out and then she would be mad and yell at her again… But this is so boring!
“So, you want to use Himari and myself to back up your claim that it was… X47?” Amethyst confirmed the plan.
It was… simple if you asked Hecatolite. They wanted the two “saints” to simply back them up while they told the rest of the council what happened yesterday… kind of, they were going to leave out that Hecatolite was X47, for obvious reasons, and just say it was some divine… something or another. She hadn’t been paying attention, after all, Eryl was here, and man did she look good in her new clothes!
Amethyst had found a pair of shorts of all things! And gods did Eryl’s legs do something for Hecatolite, the bite marks on her thighs reminded her just how much…
“Hecatolite,” Eryl’s voice wasn’t stern, but it was clear she was annoyed, “Can you control yourself.”
Oops, Hecatolite grinned as the bands on her arms flashed a faint pink. Hecatolite giggled as she scratched her cheek, “Sorry, got distracted.”
Amethyst giggled at her sister, though the others had… strange expressions. She had never gotten good at reading people’s expressions, but Cemi blushing while she glanced at All-goose; that and the conversation the two were having earlier, she had a good guess what was going on. And good for them, they made a cute couple, not to mention All-gooses other wife they had met! The tall red haired elven woman was gorgeous, not as beautiful as Eryl of course, but Hecatolite could admit that she was stunning! And she seemed so nice, smiling as she welcomed them into the house, and even bringing them food and tea!
All-goose was a lucky man! Surrounded by his loving wives and… Hecatolite missed Saffron, hopefully they can get home quickly! She was sure that Saffron and Eryl would get along… hopefully…
Nodding to herself she noticed that everyone was looking at her… again… Shit, I missed something… think me, what were they talking about again… “Sounds… good?” She gave them a thumbs up, and that seemed to be the answer they were looking for! See, this negotiation thing isn’t so hard!
“Ok, so with that taken care of I will talk to the inn about getting you a separate room.” All-goose sighed and Hecatolite cocked her head.
Why would they need a second room? “We are ok with one.” She said and they all looked at her again.
“Hecatolite, you just agreed to separating from Eryl while you are here.” Himari whispered to her. “You know, so you stop filling rooms with your aura?”
“I what?” Shit, she really needed to pay more attention! “That's a horrible plan! Why would we need to be separated!” She yelled as she glared at Cemi. This had to be pay back… she wasn’t sure why, but the woman had looked very angry with her when they got here so… why was she so mad at me! What did I do to her!
“It's only for two days, Hecatolite.” Eryl sighed as she shook her head.
“That's two days too long!” Hecatolite grumbled, crossing her arms. “I wanted to do it in a bed… the tree was uncomfortable.” She muttered under her breath and Amethyst laughed.
“Hecatolite,” her sister tried to placate her as her tail started to lash out in annoyance, “If you accidentally let your aura out again someone will realize that you were the cause of everything yesterday. Kind of hard to prove it was a one time thing if you keep flooding the area with your aura.” she explained though she was still smiling. Amethyst suspected her sister wasn't paying attention, but her agreement to that little part of the plan had proven it. Hecatolite wouldn't agree to it, she knew that, even without Hecatolite’s obsession with sticking together there was no way she was going to be separated from Eryl any time soon.
Separating Hecatolite from Saffron had been hard enough and that was with their entire family working together and the need to separate their consciousness from their old body supporting them. Now though? Hecatolite was her own person with her own body and everything, there was no “need” for her to hold back now, and Amethyst was positive that she was not going to go through another self imposed “dry spell”. After all, Amethyst knew her sister's domains of lust and gluttony were a perpetual loop that would feed one another.
Hecatolite scrunched her face in concentration, she just needed to remember what their plan was and how to make it work without this foolish notion of splitting the party. rule one, never split the party. rule two, if splitting the party seems like a good idea, refer to rule one. This is just adventuring one o one! Why would we ever agree to this? she grumbled, causing Cemi and Alagos to pale a little as her tail lashed around her.
Hecatolite started to pace around as the others started talking again, she still didn't listen as they started to talk about what exactly they were going to say to the council; which wasn't important! They needed to come up with a better plan!
But, Hecatolite knew they wouldn't, after all Eryl was still doing the “no interference admin” thing so she was no help. Amethyst was still young, she was smart, yeah but she was still practicing so Hecatolite couldn't blame her for going along with the first plan that came to mind. She still needed a lot of practice, she will get there eventually; besides this is great training for her!
Himari? eh, Fish-eggs was… well she wasn't useless, but planning was clearly beyond her. Besides, the way she kept glancing at Amethyst, the woman's head was clearly in the clouds!
No, Hecatolite will need to do it all herself; that's fine, it will be a good learning experience for Amethyst! That's it, she will be a good older sister and take care of it all this time.
Nodding to herself, Hecatolite set to work cleaning up this mess for the elves. Really, I may have overestimated Cemi and all-goose. That didn't feel right either, they were good people and Hecatolite liked them, it wasn’t a horrible plan; it just needed a lot of work! They were after all the chairmen of fashion and tour giving, so this was out of their realm of expertise; this will be a good learning experience for them! they needed to broaden their horizons after all, get them good thoughts rolling! If they were lucky All-goose would get a promotion and then he could get Cemi a ring!
She furrowed her brow as she looked at the man in question, he didn't have any rings! Poor man, couldn't even get his first two wives rings! She didn't know how much being the chairman of tours paid, probably not much, but he was still a chairman! He seemed like a good guy, so she doubted he just didn't buy rings for his wives, he must be picky; that's it, like her he just wanted to get the best rings. That's it, Hecatolite needed to help him… She was getting distracted!
Ok, fix their plan then I'll get some rings and enchant them… I don't have time to make rings, but I should be able to buy some… She nodded to herself, now that she had a checklist she could focus!
“Is… everything ok?” All-goose asked her as she stared at his hand, breaking her train of thought.
Hecatolite shook her head, he probably didn't want everyone to know; the poor man was probably embarrassed about it after all. “No, but I will fix.” She stated before letting them go back to their “planning”. Once she fixes the overall plan then they will hopefully be able to figure it out from there.
She didn't notice that her simple proclamation had caused the rest of them to freeze; wondering just what it was she was going to fix, but that didn't matter.
So first, she needed something for them to present to the council as “proof” of divine intervention… Eryl won't just let Hecatolite and Amethyst declare themselves divine, and she agreed with that kind of. People get really weird when gods and devils show up, and that would be a huge headache! Then again, maybe they could get some free food out of it… no i need to focus.
A blessing maybe? But who would she bless? Not only that, but Eryl yells at her when she blesses people, apparently she doesn't do it right; which didn't make sense either but that wasn't important.
She could bless them with the Babylon skill… wait, that didn't work when she tried it before, something about bloodline abilities not being able to be given… she will need to ask Eryl about that later, why were her boxes so damn difficult! Hecatolite could make her own boxes… but then Eryl will be sad, she is really proud of her system after all and it would take a long time.
Oh, she could make an item! An enchantment that lets someone ask for a terminal! That way the elves can ask for a terminal when they need one, and Eryl will be happy that Hecatolite did not “improve” her terminals again. And she can't complain that Hecatolite was flooding people with aether!
And she could even make it an artifact! That would do it! They will have proof that it was her but not her, and the elves will get their guest terminal!
Now what item…
A grin spread across her face as she looked at All-goose, “I need… to go to the restroom.” She stated bluntly before walking to the door and before anyone could stop her, she left the room.
The moment the door closed she broke into a sprint, she needed help picking out just the right rings… “Hey!” She nearly bowled into the tall red haired elven woman who was talking to another woman…
Hecatolite looked at the other woman who was a bit shorter than the red haired woman, but she was sold with scars on her arms. Elves didn't get muscular from what Hecatolite had seen but this woman was…
Hecatolite’s eyes flashed with power as she looked at the woman in question, her soul was… interesting. The woman's soul was a dim red color, not like plague who was suppressing his magic, but more like she just didn't have a lot of mana; but where she lacked magic she was… impressive, her soul was stocky, clearly she was strong. Even her soul had a stern look to it, yet it was still very… warm, not inviting but kind. she was… Guard! That was the word, she’s nice but weary… Why would she be weary?
“Who… is this?” The new woman asked as the red haired woman just laughed, Hecatolite still holding onto her waist from when she ran into her a moment ago.
“Alagos is having a meeting again,” the red haired elf said as she patted Hecatolite’s head. “This is one of his guests. Did you need something little one?” The woman asked as if she was talking to a child, which didn't make sense, Hecatolite wasn’t a child but… she will let it pass, after all compared to the two of them she was really small…
It was unfair! Hecatolite was not small, she was… getting distracted again! “Yes, I need rings! four of them.”
“Rings?” The red haired woman asked and Hecatolite nodded.
“Yes, and I need your help picking them.” She grinned at the woman who looked nervous all of a sudden, why did people look nervous when she smiled at them! Whatever, “We need one for you, one for his other wife, and Cemi, of course, and then one for him.”
The two women looked at eachother, clearly confused as the shorter woman with brown hair asked, “Why would we need rings?”
We? Hecatolite looked at the woman again. Why we?... Hecatolite scrunched her face for a moment before it clicked, “Oh, you must be his…” other wife sounded bad in her mind… and she had a creeping suspension that it would bother the woman… “Wife as well. Man, All-goose is really lucky! I thought he was kinda boring but wow.”
As Hecatolite conscripted Remi and Fey into an impromptu shopping trip the others in her party all exchanged looks in the warded room. The tension growing each passing moment despite Cemi and Alagos being slightly relieved by her departure. No one wanted to admit it, but Hecatolite being here had not only been disruptive and she was also the weak link in the plan; her inability to sit still and the fact she kept filling the room with her aura was… problematic.
“She's… going to the bathroom?” Himari finally said. breaking the tense silence as they all stared at the door.
Neither Hecatolite or Amethyst used the bathroom… They all knew that. So why had Hecatolite bolted from the room?
Eryl sighed, Hecatolite was up to something, but what? And should she try to stop her? She had no delusions, Hecatolite running around on her own could be dangerous; but also trying to confine her would cause her to lash out… it was clear that she had been growing agitated by being in this room for the short two hours they had been here, and they would need to be here for quite a while longer before going to the council meeting in the afternoon., And being in the council room had irritated Hecatolite before…
She focused on her tracking spell only to find that Hecatolite had finally either noticed it or just broke it the night before… Groaning she summoned a terminal, she wouldn't be able to tell the others if she got the information this way, but it would sooth her mind.
Hecatolite was… Right on the other side of the wall? Eryl looked at the wall in question only for the terminal to flare to life, turning red as Overseer spoke.
“Mother Eryl, Hecatolite has…” The line of text cut out as the terminal itself refused to track her. “No peeking, surprises.” The voice was distorted as the terminal flickered and turned blue, Babylon’s robotic voice reasserting itself as it finished. “Hecatolite has removed herself from the system… again. I have no idea how she keeps doing that.” It started to complain before Eryl cut it off.
“Fine.” Eryl sighed, dismissing the terminal. she had put her faith in Hecatolite the night before, and she… reluctantly, would let the other woman have her privacy.
“It'll be fine.” Amethyst chuckled, curious on what her sister was “fixing” only to receive a message.
“Message from Hecatolite Lapidary, hey! I need money… How much money do we even have? It doesn't matter, just a handful of gold should do. I’m going to buy… I mean I don't know how much it's going to cost… yes i am sure, but it’s a surprise so don't tell… oh and i found All-gooses other wives, they are going to help me pick out the… so yeah, if you could just toss some gold out the window but don't let anyone see you do it!” The message was… strange, like parts of it just cut out, which was weird given Hecatolite’s messages were normally long rambling messes.
“She… met Remi and Fey?” Alagos cocked his head as he looked at the window only to see Remi and Fey standing there.
Remi looked perplexed as she stared into the window at the gathered people, her arms crossed as she cocked an eyebrow. Fey looked amused as she stared down at the spot between them.
Amethyst, for her part, laughed as she summoned a small bag of gold coins to her hand and tossed it out the window only for it to… vanish in a white flash before they heard shuffling like someone was crawling beneath the windowsill.
Fey jumped at the sudden movement but Remi just stared at Alagos, her eyes narrowing in a question that he could only answer in a shrug. He trusted his wives to not offend the small monster that had apparently roped them into… something… what better baby sitters for Hecatolite, after all they were both well known in the city, and she had proven to be completely safe when he was guiding her around the other day.
Amethyst cleared her throat, “ok, back to business.” She knew if they all kept staring at the window, not only will nothing get done, but eventually someone will suggest following Hecatolite, and that seemed to be exactly what her sister didn't want to happen. Besides this was a great chance to hash out a few more details about their idea, and even talk a bit more about the alliance if they had time. She had noticed how Cemi and Alagos kept glancing at Hecatolite, the two of them obviously unnerved by her sister's presence though thankfully they didn't say anything about it.
She is honestly surprised they aren't trying to throw her in jail, more or less letting her just leave but she suspected the revelation about their Divinity was staying their hand there. This would be a great opportunity for her to learn more about the elves actually, without an immediate threat on the horizon, or Hecatolite here to complain about it. Amethyst was free to ask whatever she wanted…
