Aftermath

Each time Rose regrew a bone, she suppressed a whimper. She refused, absolutely refused, to wallow in the pain like some undisciplined peasant. Her body was hers to command, absolutely under her control, and if that meant redistributing biomass away from nonessential areas to reconstruct her hand, she’d do it. It beat losing the hand permanently, that much was certain. She’d just need to gorge herself to pack on a few pounds to make up the difference… preferably while she was still in Camelot.

“I think, and I can’t be completely certain, that you’re missing a component of your power.” Gil explained, watching with great interest as she reconstructed the muscles of her dominant hand. “Does the word Sting mean anything to you? Because I have an option on your character sheet that would let me unlock it.”

“No.” Rose said, taking a bite of soru bread as she waited for the pain to recede. “It’s not a shocker, though. No one is entirely sure where powers come from. Most capes have certain parts of our brain that are shaped different, but if I remember right they are way to small to account for powers on their own. Even the mostly mental ones.”

“Gotcha.” Gil said. “So, since we know fuckall about it, what do you want to do about it? I could get rid of the lizard once we use it as a taxi for a bit, then buy Sting. We don’t know what else that might do, though.”

“Please don’t be cryptic, Gil.” Rose said, wincing, “I’m already dedicating quite a lot of focus to this, I don’t really have time to decode you too.”

Gil chuckled.

“Ok, fair.” He said. “Basically, we don’t know what this Sting thing is or what it wants, and there’s a small chance that we’d be offering it a window into other worlds within my test.”

“What would it cost you?” Rose asked, taking a deep breath. “That might make the difference.”

“Ten credits.” Gil said. “It’s not cheap, but if you’re going to blow off your hand whenever you use your power…”

“No, I think I can control it.” She said defensively. “I just didn’t know I had to. We aren’t losing the dragon over this. That thing crushed my body in seconds. It would be better for me to just stay as a noncombatant over wasting the trip. My other powers seem to work fine.”

“If you’re sure.” Gil said, “Hopefully we won’t regret this. Also, I know you’re not exactly feeling good right now, but if you could maybe give her a touch up…”

Rose looked up from her half formed hand and raised an eyebrow.

“You do remember how painful it is, right?” She asked. “Sure, I won’t feel the shifts as much as the dragon will, but it’s still not pleasant.”

“You seemed pretty happy doing it to Candress a few days back.” Gil challenged. “What changed?”

Rose blushed.

“Well… ok, yes, it is fun, but I’m not exactly in the mood right now.” She said, and Gil realized what she meant.

“You little sadist!” He said. “You like that it hurts them!”

The red in her cheeks flared even brighter.

“Maybe!” She admitted. “Now shut up about it, or I definitely wont do it. How bad is she, anyway?”

“She looks almost exactly like the male goblins from the waist up, except for the breasts.” Gil said. “And this isn’t just for me. I’m pretty sure the average knight would kill her on sight if we show up with her as she is now.”

“Fine, fine.” Rose said. “I’ll get to it before we go, alright?”

“Thanks.” Gil said, and he leaned in to brush his lips against her cheek. He tasted sweat. “I’m sorry. This hasn’t exactly been a vacation, has it?”

“Excuse me? Compared to Brockton?” Rose asked. “The food at Camelot was a bit weird, but a horse ride through the English countryside was the most relaxing day I’ve had in weeks. Especially with you doddering along. If we forget about my hand, it’s been a delight.”

“English? Who said it was England?” Gil said, perking up. “Wait, do you know this world?”

“Don’t get excited; it’s a really old story in Brockton, but I only know tiny bits and pieces.” She said. “I know that Ragnell is supposed to be married to Gawain, because Lily had to read the Loathly Lady in high school. I knew Merlin existed but nothing about what he does, and I knew King Arthur became king because he pulled a magic sword out of a rock. I guess it might be worth noting that-“

She looked around for Gawain, but it seemed that he was still out hunting for their dinner.

“There’s a guy named Lancelot who is fucking Arthur’s wife.” Rose said. “Or will later. Or something. It’s a big deal but I never read about that part. I’ve never heard of Culwych either, so I don’t know why he’s important, either.”

Gil nodded. It was even spottier than what Gary had been able to relay, and most of it he’d already seen with his own eyes. Even the bit about Lancelot was mostly gossip, but he filed it away just in case it became relevant. Gossip was interesting, though, so he pressed while he fished around in his bag for his tablet and a few important items.

“So what, Ragnell was important somehow?” Gil asked. “What went on there?”

“I don’t remember why, exactly, but some ridiculously ugly woman showed up at court.” Rose explained. “She somehow convinced the king to get someone to marry her, I think a riddle competition was involved? Anyway, she was hideous so there was basically no other way she’d get anyone decent and well… medieval times. Not a good time to be a single woman.”

Gil nodded. The settings where women were useless did tend towards the warlords and swinging swords persuasion, and usually were rather unpleasant for the ladies in question. They always seemed a bit odd when he visited them.

“Well, turns out that she needed to marry someone important to break a curse.” Rose explained. “So he goes to consummate the marriage in his bedchamber and instead of a warty barrel with legs, he finds… well, you saw her.”

“A knockout.” Gil said.

“And she tells him that he gets to choose whether she looks like that during the day, or after dark.” Rose explained. “Rest of the time, hag.”

Gil snorted. It seemed easy enough. If it was really a binary, you go with the day. Most places had more daylight than night time, you get used to anything as long as it’s not dangerous, and it’s not exactly hard to arrange to have sex in the morning or at certain times during the day. Not ideal, but manageable.

“Ok. Fair enough.” He said. “So Lucan scooped her up first and chose day?”

“No, if he knew the story, he probably chose the correct option.” Rose said, rolling her eyes. “He let Ragnell choose which she preferred, like a gentleman, and that broke the curse completely.”

“Nice. So he showed up here and knew how to get an excellent wife by just looking up the location of a notoriously ugly noblewoman and answering a few questions correctly?” Gil said, then smiled. “Yeah, he’s got the makings of a tester. That’s the kind of exploit that gets rewarded in this line of work.”

“Like you?” Rose asked. “You just missed the whole point of the test.”

Gil shrugged, and opened his tablet’s menu. He brought up the dragon, and found that her name was literally just “dragon.” He’d need to give her a name at some point. A bunch drifted through his mind, all bereft of context. Tiamat, Echidna, Lily, Ysera, Zubeia. He was pretty sure they were all dragons he’d known at one point or another; hell, he could still remember exactly when Ysera had cashed out a few centuries back. Whether or not he wanted to name her after an old acquaintance was a different story.

She was appropriately listed as a T5 no name, and priced similarly to a T4 big name. A new one use lure, 10 credits, and a mostly cosmetic variant on the parasite binding. A dragon parasite would probably be a bit faster than a Seru parasite and may be capable of flight, at the cost of less armor and strength.

“I didn’t know the metrics for Ragnell’s story.” He said to Rose. “I chose, based on the options given to me and what I could reasonably predict, the one I could live with. Optimal doesn’t necessarily mean perfect. Lucan knew what answers to provide going in, presumably, so he did that. I’d bet he’s been using prior knowledge since he got here.”

“Maybe.” Rose said. “He seems happy, at least. So, do we invite Nimue to watch? You’re trying to show off your magic to her, right?”

“Absolutely.” Gil said, leaning in close and lowering his voice. “I’m thinking that if we can impress her enough, we might be able to invite her to join up last minute in return for letting her learn more about the world beyond this one. So if you can impress her…”

Rose rolled her eyes, and walked over to where Nimue was sitting with the fire materia. She’d already reached the point where she could light a campfire using damp wood and a quick spell, and she hadn’t even slotted it into something. She allowed Rose to help her to her feet and the two of them walked over to join Gil.

Gil examined his character cards, trying to decide what he could imbue into the dragon to get her a bit more useful. He immediately tossed the sex cult recruiter back into the bag. That just seemed like a terrible idea, especially given how dangerous seductive snakes could be in so many settings. He also wasn’t terribly impressed with the merchant noblewoman either, at least not for a dragon.

Calista the maid, on the other hand, had an interesting note. A synergy marker on the Maid tag. Apparently, dragon + maid + shifter was a combo recognized by the system. He didn’t need her to be a genius, but being a maid worthy of the title required a certain level of intellect, diligence, and discipline, not to mention a basic ability to communicate at at least a basic level.

Speaking of discipline, he picked out the Biron Monk card as well. He’d seen her try to punch Gawain, and frankly it had been pathetic. If she was going to have human arms, she was going to learn how to use them properly to punch through cinder blocks. It would most likely come with the developed mental skills of discipline and focus, if not the personality traits that normally paired with those, so he considered it a decent use of a T2 card.

Once Rose slumped over on the rocks, Gil took Nimue by the hand and led her up the rocky path to the dragon. She didn’t seem particularly coordinated, but she also didn’t complain about the difficulty. Once they were at the mouth of the cave, they peeked in and Rose began the demonstration.

The dragon’s eyes opened wide as a loud cracking noise echoed through the cave. She let out a pained groan and arched her back as her wrinkled skin seemed to tighten upon her frame, smoothing out and losing all blemishes as it did. He belatedly noted that she didn’t actually have nipples; she had massive breasts regardless, but if they had any function it certainly wasn’t suckling infants.

Gil didn’t watch every step. He was too busy applying the cards while Rose was still in the dragon’s body. He didn’t think that they’d do much, but if Rose became more domestically competent or learned a bit more about martial arts, it seemed like a potentially positive development.

The reshaping went on for several minutes, during which the dragon curled up into a tightly coiled ball in a state of clear pain. He felt a bit bad, but nowhere near enough to call Rose off. He did cast a quick cure spell, at least, hoping to soothe some of the dragon’s pain. He was regenerating magic a lot slower than in the Lands Shrouded in Mist, but it was slowly ticking back up, unlike in Brockton. He could afford to waste a bit on being nice to the new recruit, especially given the absolute ordeal he was putting her through.

The dragon was a fair bit less willing to roll over and go back to bed after this second assault, likely because she was suddenly smart enough to be curious. A dumb behemoth might be willing to shrug and recover after an unpleasant encounter. A person with roughly human intellect had questions.

The serpentine woman raised herself into the air, looking around for a moment before focusing on the pair huddled just outside her cave. Her newly pleasant features screwed up in an expression Gil could best describe as mortal offense at the sight of Nimue. She started to slither forward with alarming speed, fixated on the blonde enchantress.

“Hey! Hey, stop that!” Gil shouted. “She’s a friend.”

The dragoness shifted her eyes to focus on Gil, still distinctly wary. She shifted from side to side to get a clear line of sight on Nimue, who was slowly backing away.

“She’s an intruder.” She explained patiently. “She’s in my territory.”

“So she needs to die just for that?” Gil challenged.

“Yes!” The dragon said, exasperated. “Who knows what she might do if she’s allowed to be near us? She’s even seen where my nest is!”

“We have an arrangement already!” Gil said. “I’m going to need you to trust me on this one!”

“She’s not going to be mating with you, is she?” The dragon shifted, her coils settling in a way that resembled a woman sitting upon a pile of tires. She was looking at Nimue with, if anything, more open hostility.

“Did the talking beast just question my honor?” Nimue asked, sounding more curious than upset.

“No, no, I don’t think so.” Gil said, vaguely trying to answer the questions of both women.

The dragon stared at him, perhaps hoping for an answer to his baffling behavior.

“What good is she, then?” She asked. “Food for later?”

“No! No, she is helping us travel quickly to deal with an enemy.” Gil said. “That’s all. There’s also a male who we are traveling alongside. Ok?”

The dragon seemed unimpressed with his response, but she wasn’t trying to figure out how to kill Nimue anymore, so it was a small win. She also barely registered the presence of Rose, who climbed up to inspect her handiwork. No hostility, nor any friendliness. Rose seemed to be simply a presence that was allowed to exist near the dragon, even to the point of brushing her fingers along the dragon’s hide.

“Look, we need to travel far away from this territory anyway.” Gil explained. “I need you to help me deal with an enemy that is here to hurt a friend of mine.”

“This is my nest!” She said. “There is still food here!”

“Well it’s not your home anymore.” Gil said, “I’ll be bringing you to a new home soon, where nobody at all can intrude. Doesn’t that sound nice? Short term, though, please put some clothes on.”

Gil tossed the gigantic snake woman the bunny suit he’d initially gotten for Ireena. He’d brought it along because… well, it was a magic item. You never knew when you might need a self cleaning and self repairing outfit, even a stupid one, and this woman’s torso alone was around as tall as Gil’s entire body. She wasn’t going to be shopping off the rack.

The leotard and tights transformed into a vaguely tube shaped garment as they entered her hands, and expanded to fit over her head. By the time she’d pulled it down to cover her midriff, a tiny scrap had torn off and formed into a pair of bunny ears in her hair, and another two bits of fabric had wrapped around her wrists to form cuffs. Gil noted in passing that it had lacy white frills, which were probably there to acknowledge the maid tag.

“How do I look?” She asked, folding back some of her hair into a bun absentmindedly. “Acceptable?”

“Very.” Gil said, craning his head up to look at her. “Let’s see what Gawain thinks of you, eh?”