The Unwanted Tamer

Gaia just stared at the screen for a bit, rereading it a few times, before it finally clicked in her head. This was what Cel had meant when she'd explained the consequences of deepening her bonds. The only thing she didn't understand was why the title didn't describe any of the other consequences Cel had explained. It didn't even mention the one pro of the situation.

This was when she realized she'd spoken.

"She had explained that, though." She'd mumbled as she glanced over the screen once more.

"What?" Griff asked.

"Who explained what?" Fergus asked.

"Gaia are you ok? You've been unconscious for hours and now you're talking about someone saying something?" Stephanie asked before quickly asking another question. "Wait, you weren't pulled to talk to that thing again, were you?"

Gaia took a few moments for her mind to clear and actually absorb what Stephanie was asking, before responding.

"No, I wasn't. But can we talk about that later?" She replied while coughing. Her throat was still raw from screaming and talking hurt. That was without including the coughing which was agony for her.

The group agreed and let her rest. They helped her drink and healed her slowly. Thankfully, it only took her a couple hours to be able to talk somewhat normally again. She still couldn't speak for too long or she'd have a coughing fit. The group rested for a few hours, most of them fussing over Gaia, while Stephanie told her about what they'd learned. Not only about the vampires but also the conversation about the Baron and baroness being in a hunting party with the King, Queen and Duke. Gaia was surprised, but it did explain why he was so influential, outside of him just being a likable person.

When she could finally speak more than a sentence without coughing, she started to tell them what happened when she passed out. Everyone was understanding and waited patiently for her to tell them what had happened. The retelling had the rest of her friends worried and the others intrigued. Her friends were obviously worried because they now knew the Amalgamation, or rather the Eternal Lord, had been able to claim a shard of her spirit. This was extremely worrying because no one knew what that could cause. It was a surprising revelation, but explained to the royal family and Duke why she'd been able to bond to the artifact.

Everyone was intrigued by the fact that the artifact had changed because of her though. That wasn't something that anyone had ever heard of happening before. They knew of sentient artifacts, as the King had one bound to him, but they'd never heard of one that changed fundamentally like this one had. Gaia had even decided to analyze and share the screen with everyone. They were shocked by the fact that Gaia's bonds could create copies that would change based on them as well. It just wasn't something that should have been possible.

"Just who are you, young lady?" The Queen asked.

"Ah, sorry. I'm Gaia. A lost, who came here." She stopped for a moment to calculate. "About two years ago now? The only thing I had was an egg that hatched into my sweet little baby, Malachite here, then the rest is history." She finished.

The royal family, Duke Wilifred and Delilah were speechless. While Delilah had known Gaia for a while, she'd never realized the girl was a lost. To Delilah, Gaia was an odd girl, very odd, but she'd never even thought about it. With that piece of knowledge, parts of the girl's oddity were explained. That didn't even begin to help explain how she'd become as strong as she was in a measly two years, though. With nearly a third of that time, being in the ruins doing the commission.

The Duke and royal family were just as shocked. This was a young girl who had appeared in this world with nothing but an egg, according to her statement, and gotten to where she was in just two years. The Duke, and royal couple were adamantine rank, and were a couple hundred years old. This girl's speed at leveling was absurd. For them to get to where she was currently had taken them nearly thirty years. That included their childhood, where they didn't level passed normal rank.

"May I ask how old you are, Gaia?" The Duke asked hesitantly.

"I am seventeen. I turn eighteen in, three months I think?" She replied.

Apparently, the smaller groups mouths dropped open, as Gaia heard her friends and the Baron laugh.

"Ahem. You might want to close your mouths. There's more." He stated with mirth.

"There's more? I don't believe there can be much more." The King replied incredulously.

"What else is there, Gaia? I don't know if I can take much more than this." The Queen asked.

"Well, the world I was from didn't have levels or anything. So, I only started leveling after arriving, and my class doesn't allow me to deal damage directly. Ah, there's also the fact that I was in the hunter camp for six months too." Gaia replied slowly and sheepishly.

The royals and others gave up at this point. Everyone else had a good laugh at their expense though, except for Gaia who was embarrassed by the situation. It did get her mind off what had happened a bit, so it was welcome all the same. The Baron couple and royal couple proceeded to poke fun at each other for a while after they regained their composure. Gaia enjoyed the atmosphere while she slowly recovered. Antonio and Fern were working continuously trying to heal her a bit faster.

This situation continued for a day before anything happened, with the group staying holed up in the "panic room" of the palace, as Gaia took to calling the area they were in. The nobles were still wary about the lead vampire, Patches. They didn't believe he truly left and were still expecting him to do something. He finally did as they expected and tried something. His tactic was not a good one, but he stuck to his self-proclaimed theme of pride. He decided to waltz straight into the palace, and was able to make it all the way to the door of the panic room.

He just pushed the door open, with extreme effort, and walked into the room. This was where he found the group of nobles waiting for him. They had sensed him approaching and had been waiting for him. They were all near the door, except for the baron and baroness who were by Gaia and their group, just in case.

"All of this tension? For little old me? Well, I must say I'm quite flattered. Now, hand her to me and I'll be on my way." Patches stated.

"How about you leave, or we have a wonderful cell prepared for you. It's perfect for you, it's right in the middle of our waterways. We can even drop you in for a nice bath if we want." The Duke stated.

This was when Patches did something none of them expected, he flinched and took a step back, as if afraid. He quickly recovered and brought forth as much bravado as he had.

"You truly believe such mundane things would frighten or even effect me? The Insolence! I will take her with me as a present for my Lord when I return." He declared and moved forward to attack.

The Duke stepped forward to block the attack of the vampire. The strike landed without a sound and without any reaction from the Duke. That is until he started laughing. The attack didn't seem to have hurt him at all not even like he would bruise later.

"He may be iron rank, but he's the weakest person in this room!" The Duke exclaimed as he grabbed the vampire's arm.

"Let go, you barbaric excuse for life! Unhand me! I am a noble vampire; I could kill you with a simple wave of my finger if I desired. I just don't feel like it right now." Patches babbled.

When the Duke reeled back to punch the pitiful man he squealed. "I'm sorry! I'll do whatever you want! Just don't hurt me!"

The entire group was incredulous. This was someone who claimed to be the "Prince of Pride?" A weak man that liked to appear strong but would cave at the first sign of his loss. They wouldn't complain. If this was someone the Eternal Dynasty had within their numbers, how dangerous could they actually be. Granted he was just a singular person, but they guessed they could interrogate him to find out anything he knew. The Duke continued to hold onto the man with the King enchanting him. Eventually the pair left with the vampire still held and Gaia asked why the King had enchanted the Duke.

"Right. I forgot, you probably don't know how vampires work right? Well, they are extremely hard to kill since they can only be truly hurt by either magical or spiritual damage. Unlike other undead, healing magic will heal them. They can also turn into a swarm of bats or a cloud of mist, depending on their strength, to escape but can't transform or flee if they're held by something magical." Freya explained.

"Ok. I think I understand." Gaia replied.

The pair that had left returned a half hour later, tired. The vampire had been taken to the dungeon where he'd been placed in a cell. It was magically warded so he couldn't escape, and it was suspended over the waterway, so they could dunk him in whenever they needed.

Now that the leader had been dealt with, the entire group visibly relaxed. They'd been on edge worried about his possible sneak attack or plans, but now he was dealt with. Looking back, now that they knew his true nature, the group felt embarrassed that they'd viewed him as a larger threat. Now, they all relaxed and fell asleep. The Baron and his wife were cuddled close on a loveseat by Gaia's bed. The King and Queen were similarly close, while the Duke was sprawled out on his back on the floor snoring.

Flora was grouped together in a couple obvious pairs but in a near dogpile. Fern and Douglas were leaning against the bed holding hands and fauna was spread out over the entirety of the massive bed Gaia was in. Stephanie and Griff were close to the foot of it where they'd sat and eventually fell back asleep. Fergus was cuddled up near Gaia while her bonds were in their usual spots. Malachite was tangled in her hair already. Liv was keeping watch and weaving something with her webs. Antonio was in torpor near her shoulder and Shadow was lying on top of Gaia making it nearly impossible to see her.

Gaia smiled. Her friends had been awake and worried for at least a day; they needed the rest. She needed some more as well, so she soon joined them in sleep. Nothing happened for the next two days, aside from the King waking everyone up with laughter. He'd looked at Gaia and only been able to see her head, as everything else was underneath the mass of black fur that was Shadow, and he couldn't contain his laughter. Fern and the palace healer continued to heal Gaia so, after around a week, she could walk and function almost normally.

This was when Gaia decided they needed to leave. She didn't want to further take advantage of the royal family's kindness, so they left the palace. They returned to the Baron's capital house, with imperial guard escorts just to be safe. Once back in the Baron's house they relaxed and took their time to go over what had happened. They all met up for dinner and talked about what the plans for the future were. They all planned to return to Boundary but decided to take some time in the capital, mostly since Gaia was still recovering, and the baroness refused to take a carriage back. She wanted to ride on Malachite since he was much more comfortable than a carriage.

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They planned to stay until Gaia was fully recovered and only then leave for Boundary. Gaia was fine with this since she really didn't want to have to deal with traveling at the moment. She was still in pain; it wouldn't go away even after all of the healing she'd been through. She'd expected this though since her body and spirit needed to adapt to being merged even more. It would take a while, but she was certain it'd get better with time. Luckily, it wasn't enough that she couldn't move and could go around the estate. She hadn't gone outside yet since she was still worried about any accomplices the vampire could have.

The Baron had let her know that the King and Queen were already investigating so she could breathe slightly easier. When a week had passed after they'd returned from the palace, Gaia decided to go outside the estate. She was with her companions, including Flora and Freya, so no one was worried. They walked around the capital for a couple hours, until Gaia finally decided to check out somewhere she'd been interested in for a while.

"Can we check out the Hunter's League in this city?" She asked her friends.

"I don't see why not. If I remember correctly, it should be in this direction." Titania replied.

The group followed Titania and Gaia as they led the way to the Hunter's League in the capital. Titania was talking to Gaia as they went, telling her about what was around or otherwise just happily chatting with her. Gaia was on Malachite's shell as they traveled so the group was getting quite a few stares. They made an eye-catching duo at the front of the group.

"Oh, over there we have a wonderful bakery! It's called Freyja's Bakery. They make a lot of wonderful bread and cookies. Every time I come to the capital I try to stop there at least once. Do you mind if we stop by on our way back?" Titania asked Gaia and their group.

"I'd love to!" Gaia replied before continuing jokingly. "Also, Freya! I didn't know you owned a bakery!"

"Wha-? I don't!" She exclaimed after she realized what Gaia had said.

"But it's called FREYA's Bakery! How could you not tell us?" Gaia replied with obvious amusement.

"Oh my! I never connected the dots! I know the owner of my favorite bakery?!" Titania added with feigned realization.

"I'm not!" Freya exclaimed again.

Gaia soon realized Freya didn't know they were joking. She quickly rectified this and after Freya understood, she giggled slightly.

"Sorry. No one really jokes with me, I'm guessing it's because I take most things at face value when I'm not at the League." Freya stated a bit embarrassed.

"It's alright. I didn't think about it. I thought you'd realize we were joking. I'll buy you something when we go there." Gaia replied.

They continued walking and arrived at the capital's Hunter's League around ten minutes later. They hadn't been in a hurry so they'd been walking at a leisurely pace, letting Gaia get used to or enjoy the sounds and smells of the city. It was nice, they weren't bothered too much aside from a few people trying to hit on members of their group. All of them were quickly shown that no one was interested, and thankfully, none of them tried after the initial encounter.

The Hunter's League loomed in front of the party. Compared to Boundary's, the capitals branch was enormous. Gaia couldn't see it, but the building had a presence. It felt like it should be massive. As they got closer, the noise around them intensified, as did the number of people Gaia could sense. When she reached the door, the noise was almost to the point of it being slightly painful, and after opening it the noise exploded. It was like a flash bang had gone off and she couldn't hear anything. It reached the point that it was deafening even for everyone else, and none of them had the keen senses ability making their hearing sharper.

Gaia immediately moved her hands to her ears but was still amazed by the size of the room. She couldn't sense its size, but she could sense nearly a hundred people milling about, waiting for a receptionist to be free. When they moved around the room, she realized it was similarly designed. The tavern was to the right of the main entrance but was much larger than Boundary's and the infirmary was to the left of the entrance. She could sense the ceiling which was about twenty feet up and when they got closer to the center, she realized it was different than Boundary in that it didn't have an open-air center. They continued around the first floor slowly, trying to stay out of the way of hunters that were moving around. There were even a few receptionists milling about helping hunters select requests or offering advice.

Gaia noticed the stairs to the second floor were on the side by the tavern. She'd tried to follow the wall, so she didn't run into anyone, but didn't try to go up them when she realized that they were stairs. With her curiosity sated, and her ears ringing from being subjected to continuous loud noise for a prolonged period, they made their way out of the building. When they exited, Gaia couldn't hear anything, and her ears were ringing. It took her a few minutes before they'd stopped, and she could hear them talking again.

"Is there anywhere else you wanted to check out? There are a few parks, training areas, and even a community garden. Before you ask, no, not the kind where you can get a plot to plant. It's one where flowers are grown and is open to everyone to enjoy." Titania explained.

"I like the idea of going to the garden if you don't mind, but what does everyone else want to do? I don't want to only do things I want." Gaia asked.

"I'm fine with whatever." Francois stated.

"Same." John added.

"I'd like to stop by a magic shop if no one minds." Said Jess.

"I just want to see some shops and stop by that bakery." Titania stated.

"I'd also like to check out the magic shops." Griff added.

"Are there any good smiths here? I'd like to see some of there are." Stephanie stated.

"I don't really care. I'm having fun exploring. I don't really remember the last time I was here, so it's fun to just see everything." Fergus finished.

"Alrighty then. Is everyone hungry?" Gaia asked.

Most of the group replied with some form of yes.

"Is everyone good with heading back to the bakery and stopping by some shops on the way?" Gaia compromised.

Once again there were some agreed while a couple showed no response, so they started back to the bakery. There were a lot of shops, and they stopped in at any that caught one of the group's attention. Gaia stayed outside normally and only went in at someone's insistence. Luckily, someone usually stayed outside with her, it was normally one of the guys who weren't interested in the shops wares. After an hour of shopping or looking at the wares, they arrived back at Freyja's Bakery. The smell was wondrous and enticing even when the door was closed.

When the group opened the door, the aromas swept out. They were mouthwatering and Gaia had to stop herself from drooling. It made her think about her time back on earth, she'd always been someone who liked bread and baked goods in general, but the smells of this food were even better than those. She would have run in and ordered one of everything if Fergus hadn't stopped her. He was beside her and holding her hand as they went inside, ready to read the menu to her if she asked. She was excited to be in a bakery, as the entire group could tell, but they weren't entirely sure why.

Titania was the first to enter and order what she wanted. Gaia and Fergus were set to be last in the group and Fergus read the menu to her when she asked. There were many different things she wanted to order but she was shocked when she heard Fergus read a section for beverages and the main section was coffee. She'd not had coffee in a long while, granted she wasn't sure if the drinks she usually made could be considered coffee. One of her friends usually commented something along the lines of "Would you like some coffee with your sugar?"

When she finished remembering this, she realized the weirdest part of the beverages section was that it had things like lattes and espresso. She hadn't known this world had coffee, let alone been able to create lattes or espresso. She was ecstatic, she immediately knew that she was going to get a latte. It was one of the tastes she missed from earth, and she hadn't had any coffee for over two years now! It was travesty to her. Now she just needed to figure out if they had soda. She liked coffee but she still preferred the taste of soda. It was finally her turn after Fergus had ordered and she'd decided.

"Can I get a Cinnamon Latte, an entire loaf of your bread, two of the spanakopita croissants, and two cardamom knots?" Gaia asked.

"Can I get you anything for the loaf like butter or anything?" The baker asked.

"Nope. I'll take it as is. Thank you!"

Gaia could feel the stares from the baker and her companions. She didn't think about it, so she ignored them and joined them to wait for their orders to come out. It took a while for all of the food to come out, as everyone ordered quite a bit. No one got less than two or three things each. Gaia's was the last to be ready, she'd gotten her latte a few minutes before everything else and had enjoyed sipping it. The taste brought back some good memories of drinking coffee with her family in the mornings and on trips.

The food was just as good and was quickly devoured. She gave Malachite, Shadow, and Antonio a spanakopita and a cardamom knot for themselves. Antonio didn't eat much so he only took a small part of the two while the other two bonds ate the majority of each. Gaia also shared hers with them as well, the only thing they didn't eat was the bread. Gaia grabbed the bread and took a bite out of it. Her companions just stared at her as she ate the bread, no additions, just straight bread. Gaia loved every bite; she used to buy a loaf and snack on it throughout the day on her breaks at work.

She was used to the stares because of this and paid her companions no mind until she had finished devouring the entire loaf. She smiled and sighed. The food had been wonderful, and she would definitely come back here before they left the capital. She also now understood why it was Titania's favorite bakery in the capital, especially if everything was as good as what she'd just had. Now that they'd finished eating, the group left the bakery and started heading towards the gardens.

"I've never seen someone just eat an entire loaf of bread in one sitting, and definitely not plain." Francois commented.

"It was really good. I used to buy a loaf of bread and eat it like that almost every day. I'd never had bread that good though." Gaia replied a bit defensively.

This just caused her friends to stare at her again.

"What?" She asked.

"You're just weird, Gaia." Griff stated.

"And? I know you all love my weirdness, and don't even try to deny it!" She exclaimed.

This just made everyone chuckle and giggle. They spent the rest of the short travel time chatting. They didn't talk about anything important but just about the capital and anything that was interesting to them. They reached the gardens about ten minutes after leaving the bakery, they'd moved a bit quicker since the gardens were massive and they wanted to go through them before it got dark.

Gaia could smell the gardens long before they arrived at them. The floral and earthy scent was wonderful. She could even hear kids playing or people talking quietly to each other the closer they got. She loved gardens, and her entire group knew it. The moment they arrived, Gaia was off. She moved delicately between the people on Malachite's shell, as he ensured they didn't walk on any of the lovingly tended plants and flowers. She took her time to go through the gardens, but she immediately ran towards the closest plants when they'd arrived, leaving her friends behind. She was easy to catch up to though, since she moved extremely slowly. She wanted to touch and smell pretty much every plant, so she essentially did.

Due to her enhanced senses, most smells were sharper than they'd once been, and she enjoyed stronger scents because of it. It also caused the weaker aromas to stand out more, making everything different. She enjoyed the subtle differences between the aromas of flowers and different plants. It actually helped her to identify them without her ability to see them. Now, she couldn't identify the difference between honeysuckle and gardenia just from their scent, but she could tell the difference between a berry bush and a regular shrub most of the time.

Gaia took her time and enjoyed every moment in the gardens. She could tell the plants were well tended and had even recently been watered. She felt the leaves and they were mostly soft to touch, but she was extremely gentle as she didn't want to damage them in any way. She continued like this for a long time, long enough that the number of people around her had started to slowly decrease. She hadn't noticed this, though. She was in her own little world and would only speak to her bonds, or companions when they were close enough to her.

Her companions were slowly following her as she delicately moved through the gardens. Her smile was so bright they were all happy they'd come. It had even caused them to smile seeing her genuine happiness. Even after everything she'd been through, she was so happy to just smell and touch flowers. She had dealt with so much since they'd first met her that they'd worried she'd lose that aspect of herself, but every time she went through something, she surprised them. She would always keep her genuine wonder, hope, and love of everyone and almost everything in this world. They just hoped nothing ever caused her to lose these, it was part of what made her so special. Not the fact that she was a lost, and not even the fact that she was being dragged into all of these world events. It was the way she was, that was what made her special.

This was what many of her friends were thinking as they finished their walk through the gardens. They'd spent longer there than they'd initially planned, but no one had the courage to make Gaia leave when she had that smile on her face. They left the gardens a couple hours after the sun set. Thankfully, the gardens and streets had magical lamps so people would be able to see. Gaia was tired from their day; she still hadn't fully recovered but had thoroughly enjoyed the trip out. The gardens were marvelous and had excited her the more she went through them. She decided she'd need to go back before they left the capital.

They needed to return to their house for the night, however. They swiftly returned to the Baron's estate, but it took them about an hour to get there, even while rushing. When they arrived, they found the Baron and Baroness waiting for them. After a half hour of light scolding for being out so long after dark, they were released and started to relax again. They all made their way to their rooms and got ready for bed. Fergus and Titania stopped in Gaia's room for a bit to talk but soon returned to their own rooms to get some sleep when Gaia fell asleep while talking to them.