Dissonance 15 – Work Continues

“So, you just nutted inside her without a second thought?” Avari asked. “You know how fertile goblins are, right?”

“Fecund,” Nyx offered a more artistic word.

“No, I did have a second thought, it just came out the same as the first.” Eldred’s fingers combed through Ellie’s hair. “If you mind, it wouldn’t be too late now to make sure it doesn’t take…” He did not hide the disappointment he felt at the mere idea. The choice was hers, but he would have his opinion on it be known.

“N-no, it’s… uhm…” The goblin rubbed her stomach with the fluttering start of a smile. “If it happens… I think that’d be… good.”

Eldred’s pleased hum was long and deep. He pulled the goblin a bit deeper into his embrace. Like so many things recently, this had happened in a flash. Like all of those other things, he was going to see it through to the end with all that he had to offer. In what code of law was it written that he had to wait a minimum of X weeks before he could put a baby into a haremette? Certainly, none that he had ever signed.

Avari chewed the inside of her cheek for a bit. The meaning of the gesture was not entirely lost on Eldred. “I remember that you have your concerns about how I might treat children,” he assured her. “I’m ready to talk about it whenever you want.”

“Let’s just say my father took a quantity approach to making heirs,” Avari stated, then sighed. “No, I don’t want to get into it right now. If you’re both going to just pump her full of baby batter within four days of knowing each other, that’s your bad decision to make.”

“It’s yours to live with as well,” Eldred tried to sound understanding.

“Yeah… I probably should have added something on common ‘children arrangements’ in harems to the presentation…” Avari groaned but remained pressed against his side. “Whatever, worst and best case, we got nine months to work that out. Immediate plans don’t change.”

Nyx, herself nuzzled up against Eldred’s other side, pointed first at herself then at her man. “Work.” Her finger moved onto Avari. “Cultivate.” Then, her finger moved to Ellie. “Learn.”

“Is there a tax on your words that I didn’t know about?” Avari drawled.

“It’s efficient.”

“I… k-kinda like it?” Ellie dared to weigh in, which was a nice bit of progress. Eldred kissed the top of her head to encourage her. “B-but… c-can I get some more details?” the black-blue-haired greenskin requested.

Eldred looked to Avari, who looked back at him with a half-smirk on her adorable face. “What? Need me to deliver every explanation, boss? Can’t even give a breakdown on current company goals without aid from your gremlin? Maybe…– mhm!”

A masochistic moan ended her cascade of teasing. Pinching fingers turned the seized nipple a little further and then released it. “Very well!” he raised his voice, speaking in the most authoritative tone he could muster. It was decent. He would improve there as well, in due time. “I am going to seek further work to achieve my Elemental Mastery and provide Avari with the income to fund our immediate projects. This building needs to be renovated and outfitted, the surrounding green area cleaned up, and the chain link fencing should probably be replaced with a proper wall.”

“Definitely,” Avari agreed.

The local homeless population was quite vast. So far, the appearance of the building and lingering reputation that the walls were haunted had kept them from taking an interest. Once there was stuff to steal, this was likely to change.

It wasn’t reasonable in the slightest. Iridescia offered more than enough charities and entry-level work to let any and all of these people get off the street. It was a spiritual malaise that had them in rough sleeping, the same spiritual malaise that had seen Eldred waste away in his apartment and that would have them steal from a renovated office building just for the thrill of it. Absurd wealth had broken the minds of many people. The sapient experience craved struggle. Many did not know how to create their own.

“Avari will be Cultivating, which means she will focus on growing stronger,” Eldred put it simply. “You, Ellie, will be put on the computer and read up on whatever tickles your fancy – or whatever Avari points you at. I am leaving her in charge of you.”

“Don’t worry, girlfailure, I’ll make sure you’re comfortable.” Avari hugged the side of her fellow shortstack. “Though, if that’s what we’re doing, I want you to help me move some Echo over here first, Eldred.”

He simply nodded. If Avari was supposed to make sure Ellie was safe and also plan the renovations and also Cultivate, this was best done here. They currently had no need of the facilities, it was just a lot more convenient with them. Avari wouldn’t need much longer to get to her first Core anyhow.

They moved through the morning motions after that. It began with a quick foursome, as all of his mornings at home now hopefully would. Nyx gleefully played the supportive role while he focused on Ellie and Avari. Since it was likely he would be on another world again by tonight, he wanted to leave them as satisfied as possible. After that and breakfast, they moved a hopefully sufficient amount of Echo as covertly as possible.

They split up after that. Eldred swung by the weapon shop in the Low-Ore district to grab a couple more steel instruments to try out. The axe had been fine but it hadn’t felt quite right. He got a heavy sword, a dagger, a hammer and (on a pure whim) a whip. He also got a new sleeping bag. The old one had already been burned.

Carrying all of those weapons around was a bit cumbersome, but no real problem for his improved body.

“You again?” the brunette clerk asked.

“Me again,” Eldred confirmed. That was all he had to say to the pretty lady with the twintails. He had been clearly rebuked last time and he had not improved enough yet to go for a second swing. The heterochromic eyes of the woman drilled into him for a bit. “I need work.”

“Yeah, I got that.” She groaned and tilted her head back, making no gesture to check the console in front of her. “Just give me a second to take in something happening around here. This job is so incredibly boring.”

“If you hate it, you should change careers.”

“Would love to, but my hands are tied.” She tilted her head one way until only her red eye lingered on him.

‘Is she coming onto me?’ Eldred wondered. He had just made the resolution not to flirt with her again. If he hadn’t just added Ellie to his corpo-harem, he would have broken with that instantly. ‘I already taxed Avari’s patience with what I did, I need to lay it off for at least a few days.’

“No quip? Not even a little joke? Nothing about tying my hands for me?” the brunette asked.

“No.”

“Urgh!” She threw her head back. “This job is the worst!” Immediately, she tilted back forwards and began to hammer his name into the keyboard. “E-l-d-r-e-d N-o-r-r-i-s- ACK!”

An arc of pure mana danced from the machine, striking the clerk on the forehead like a reprimanding flick. Supernatural light made it seem like the colour of her eyes drained into her individual twin tails for a moment. The optical illusion was out within a second.

“I warned you before,” Eldred drawled.

“I do not understand how your insignificant species has such a strong curse on people just typing a name!” the clerk hissed. “Who did that guy think he was? Everyone can get bitten by a cobra and then it dies. He’s not special!”

“I could have sworn you were human too?” Eldred asked. “Miss…?”

“Yeah, sure, of course I am,” she waved off, ignoring his polite attempt at getting her name. “N-o-…I…-r-i-s.” She spelled his name very carefully that time. A list appeared in front of her. She hummed and scrolled. Her gaze snapped between him and the screen a couple of times. “I’ve got a very simple job for you this time.”

“Even simpler than the last one?”

“Way simpler,” she assured, suddenly sounding very upbeat. “There’s a Tumbling Temple that needs checking out.”

Nyx did Eldred the favour of manifesting so he could act like he was not totally ignorant again. “A Tumbling Temple?”

“Every so often, gods get really bored… and by every so often, I mean everywhere, all the time, without end, gods get really bored,” the clerk launched into an explanation immediately. “Usually they fix this by launching a crusade or just switching worlds or something… but even gods can’t travel between worlds freely. They typically exist as an oversoul that spans across a cluster of worlds. Sometimes, they expand that cluster by being summoned into a new world. Now, how do you think people know to summon them to a new world?”

“They send instructions to potential new followers?” Nyx asked.

“Uh-huh – and how do you think REALLY bored gods do that?”

“…They hurl entire temples into the cosmos?” The ghost lady appeared annoyed at the mere suggestion.

“Right yet again!” The clerk threw an arm over the backrest of her chair. “Now, while one of those temples is en-route somewhere, Iridescia can’t get access to it. It’s not a world by the understanding the natural portals have for what they connect to. However!” Two hands suddenly came together in a casual clap. “Throw enough temples out into the space between worlds and some of them are bound to get stranded somewhere. Once such a location has been stopped and is accessible via a portal, we refer to it as a Tumbling Temple.”

“A guide to contact a deity, hanging in the Interstice, waiting to be claimed.” Nyx’s saddened trill was deepened by the suggestion that such an outreach was at the whims of others. “There must be valuables inside?”

“That’s what you are going to find out.” The brunette pointed at the two of them. “Tumbling Temples often follow some base layout – the gods copy each other’s homework all the time. If it’s a temple dedicated to one specific god with no valuables to speak of, it’s trash. Probably belongs to some boring fucker of goodness and light.” The brunette continued in a mocking tone. “Hurr-durr, look at me, you should summon me just because I am nice and if you do, we can all suck each other off while we talk about the glory of the light.” She wretched. “The worst.”

“We would rather find a demon temple?” Eldred asked.

“Demon gods are better because they cram in artefacts meant to tempt mortals into seeking more power… they also have a weird sense of humour. So please… if you find some fertility idol, just trust it. It TOTALLY won’t cause your dick to rot off.” The twintails flew from left to right as the clerk shook her head. “No, what you want is a claimless temple. That’s a Tumbling Temple that was either designed with no specific god in mind or was forsaken because it got lost and can now be used as a beacon for whoever.”

Nyx caught her meaning quicker than Eldred did. “An unlit beacon… cults will pay money to use it?”

“Exactly,” the brunette answered. “The unclaimed altar gets excavated, then moved to one of the many other worlds Iridescia is in contact with, and then whichever god pays the most gets to come into contact with a new world. Lots of money in that – though you would only see a fraction of that. Your job is to check out the temple, see what type of altar or altars are in there and report back. The experts will then evaluate the findings, see if it’s worth their time, and give you a nice payout.” She rubbed her fingers together. “Even if you get some dull-ass paladin-sponsor, it pays extremely well for a starter like you. Also, it’s fairly quick work.”

Eldred loved to hear all of that.

“Is there no drawback?” Nyx asked.

“Nope,” the clerk responded instantly.

“Then we’ll take it,” Eldred stated impulsively. “No need to delay.”

“I love to hear that,” the clerk purred.