A Meeting With the Wife

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Ahsch couldn’t help it; he squirmed under his wife’s unblinking gaze as she slowly sipped her whisky, swishing the burning concoction around in her mouth before swallowing. She only ever did that if she was ‘contemplative.’ A terrifying state for Avery to be in, as far as he was concerned. Even if her emotions only got as bad as ‘mildly irritated.’

“So, not only did you bring back yet _another _of your sisters to fuck - and don’t even pretend that Ariin will fail in her damned crusade, we both know better - but you _also _brought in an entire herd of satyrs who have pledged their loyalty to you, you’ve impregnated four of them, are offering to give them the ability to breed relatively freely, you’re getting them set up to live near the Temple, _and _you’ve taken up a mission for that godsdamned dragons’ mother, Phashak. Did I miss anything?”

Ahsch rubbed a feather between his fingers. “...Stisea is my mate now?” he quietly suggested.

Avery pursed her lips. “And Stisea is your mate now.” She threw back the rest of the glass, moved to refill it from the bottle, then paused. After a long glare at the bottle, she huffed a breath and drained about half the remaining whiskey within it. “I can’t let you out of my sight for five minutes before you’re causing more headaches,” she grumbled.

The hrafthi crossed his arms, a frown on his face. “Be honest, can you really blame me? Given everything that happened, and they way it all happened?”

The first Lord Odestag leveled a small glare at her husband. “It was _your _idea to give the satyrs a home and to empower and enable them; and you didn’t _have _to agree to Phashak’s request.” At Ahsch’s skeptically-raised eyebrow, she grumbled to herself, then relented, “Though turning her down probably wouldn’t be the best idea.”

“Probably not,” he agreed, then slumped into his chair, drumming his fingers atop his wife’s desk. After several long moments, he sighed. “Things are going too fast… I can’t even keep up.”

“Didn’t you say those new Innate Magics were ideal for making a second body?”

Ahsch grunted. “The second one is, for sure - it’ll allow me to eventually run two or more parallel thought processes, which should allow me to pilot two bodies at once. The problem is still _getting _that second body - Imbue Change only works on an already-existing body, after all.”

Avery frowned, then made a slightly disgusted expression. “Could it… affect a uh… baby? One that hasn’t been born?”

Ahsch’s fingers stopped. The silence stretched out. “...Fuck me, you’re brilliant,” he finally said.

She smirked at him. “Please, don’t stop the praise on my account.”

He rolled his eyes. “Oh, hush, you. But seriously, I could try impregnating one of the others and binding my soul to that fetus. Though I’ll probably want to wait for Grey Matter Growth to finish its work on my brain before I actually try it…”

“You _do _recognize the _numerous _ethical concerns that could be raised about commandeering fetuses for your own use, right? Even if they are ones that you’ve suspended in your sister’s womb for your eventual ****.”

Ahsch grimaced. “I try not to think about it too much, to be honest. But… I do wonder if I’m actually displacing any other souls in the first place - both times I’ve reincarnated, it’s been fully conscious and aware, and only at the moment of birth. It might be different due to my Reincarnative Immortality, but I can’t help but wonder - but hope - that it’s true of everyone, and that by binding my reincarnation - and my soul - to the fetus that I’m effectively earmarking it for my own use, preventing another soul from being… removed.”

“I guess we’ll never know,” Avery said, waving off the topic. “I wasn’t too concerned about it myself - whether or not souls even exist, as long as you’re the one in the body when it’s shoved, gross and squealing, into the world, that’s _your _body as far as I’m concerned.”

“Lovely imagery, thank you,” Ahsch dryly complained.

“I’m not a huge fan either, but to make a point…” Avery grinned wryly, then sobered. “That all aside, if you need the time to develop your ‘gray matter,’ then maybe you should make more liberal use of your demi-plane. It would be, what, a few weeks if you were to stay in there constantly?”

“I’d guess around 27 days, give or take,” Ahsch agreed. “Though I don’t think I have even that long to fuck off for, not this shortly after my trip back home. But I could get it done in closer to 50 days if I kept Gray Matter Growth active all the time and spent as much time as I could within the demi-plane. I could take my work in there, and I already spend most of my lessons inside it as well, so… there’s potential there.”

Avery shrugged. “I trust you’ll figure it out.” The were quiet for a few moments before she spoke again. “So, do I understand right that Dorin is going forward with ‘transitioning?’”

Ahsch nodded. “We’re actually going to go meet Talhort tomorrow; I need to go talk to him anyways about Imbue Change, and I suggested to Dorin that he gets some second and third opinions from people who’ve dealt with that stuff before. Not to try and dissuade him, but to just… plan ahead, I guess?”

“Seems reasonable. Though, if they’ve decided to change, shouldn’t we start calling Dorin ‘she’ and ‘her’ now?”

Ahsch let out a sigh. “Probably? I haven’t asked, and h-they haven’t said anything either?” He paused and frowned. “I should probably ask.”

“Probably. Should also ask about a new name.”

“That’s true.” Ahsch sighed. “Gods, there’s too much going on,” he groaned. “At least the refugee village is all set up and there’s nothing going wrong there… and the Temple is fine, as are the other religious orders… and House Odestag is doing well?” Avery nodded. “Good, good. Any change on the border?”

“Not yet, but I imagine it’s only a matter of time,” Avery said. “What about wedding plans? And Stisea, are you marrying her too, or…?”

“Kirasiel is handling the wedding for the most part, and Stisea said she doesn’t care for our ‘civilized’ weddings, she’s just happy to be mated; though she wouldn’t object if I wanted to do something. I’m still debating on that, but I figure it’s only fair to marry her properly too. Though maybe _without _inviting all the damned nobles. Mostly, she’s just excited about our daughter, keeps talking about names and room designs and where and how to raise her…” he shook his head, a small, happy smile on his lips.

“Actually, while we’re on the subject…” Avery hesitantly said.

The hrafthi frowned at her. “Stisea’s baby?”

She grimaced. “Of _your _babies.”

He raised an eyebrow. “...Okay…?”