What I Have Become

"This is it. The owner was mundane the last I was aware, but that doesn't mean all of his clients are. Don't linger too long in the lobby, and we'll take the stairs to the room, not the elevator. We have no idea what kind of attention has been given to your appearance in the last year."

"Yes, thanks to the Cabal... and you. I'm well aware," John grumbled, slamming the door of the car behind him as he exited it. Sophia and Vallya remained inside with Arista to watch over her and the exterior of the building while he booked them a room that they could use as a cover to return to their new world in relative privacy. John intended to take every possible safety precaution that either he or Arista could think of. Going to a mundane motel, as far from any established Abyssal territory as they could manage, and using Vallya's illusion spells to cloak their appearances and auras... even with those precautions, John wasn't sure that he felt very safe.

"John, I should warn you – there appear to be a few sources of magical energy emanating from the rooms in this building. None seem to be particularly powerful, but they are still present. Should we continue moving on to the next stop?" Vallya's voice echoed in his head through the ring on his finger,

"No," John replied mentally. "Arista picked this area specifically because it has some of the least cohesion of all the Abyss, and we're the least likely to run into any organized threats. There will be mages scattered everywhere, we just have to try to go unnoticed."

"I know... I just want you to be happy, John. A Star Guardian is never complete without their smile!"

Putting aside Vallya's at times stark shifts between seductive, dangerous, and bubbly, John found his way to the front desk where a very bored looking teenager was managing the late-night reception area. It didn't take long to deal with the hassle of signing in, though John still had to remind himself to respond to the name on his fake license.

"Alright, you're all set, Mr. Bates, you're in room 219 and your check-out time is 10 AM."

John took the offered keys with a smile and a nod, and let the young man behind the desk go back to pretending he didn't wish he was somewhere else. The lad didn't have the greatest customer service voice or skills, but at least his obvious disinterest in his job meant that John was unlikely to make even a passing impression on him. John's face would likely be forgotten the second he was out of view. That was a feeling he was somewhat unaccustomed to, but more than welcoming of.

With the keys in hand, John returned to the rented Sedan they were travelling in. Vallya, Arista, and Sophia exited the vehicle in that order with Arista being closely guarded between the two far stronger women. It seemed they were being careful not to let their guards down around her due to her **** loyalty either, something John appreciated, no matter how much he wished they could simply return to the safety of his private sanctum.

The motel was grungy and relatively unkempt, covered with the hallmarks of a low-traffic rest stop in the middle of nowhere. Cigarette butts, discarded cans, and shredded wrappers occasionally littered the parking lot and the walkways up on the second floor ledge. The paint was peeling in places, the building's architecture and style hadn't been updated in the last decade, and even the sign out front was an out-of-fashion neon style that made John wince with whatever the opposite of nostalgia was. Overall, it was exactly the kind of place he wanted to spend a night – outdated, so beyond basic no one with self-respect would stay there, and so disheveled it had been forgotten by time itself.

"Once we get inside, we can spend a little time making some noise," John said quietly. "On the off chance anyone is monitoring the room, I don't want them to know we vanished in a suspiciously short amount of time. I'd also prefer if the owners didn't swing by and hear an empty room and think I'm a hooker out looking for a john... irony aside, it'd bring too much attention to us if our room stood out. Give it an hour and we'll be back in our world."

"Understood, Father," Sophia said. Vallya didn't bother with a reply, but John knew she was probably already thinking along the same lines. Subterfuge and illusions were her specialty. The only reason John wasn't having her use her illusions to convince others they were still there after they left was because he didn't want to risk having ambient mana draw attention to them without Vallya there to actively shield them. Returning to the old world to an ambush was nearly as bad as the ambush coming to their new one...

The hotel room was grungy, dimly lit, poorly ventilated, and smelled of a mixture of cheap booze and failed life stories that had lingered so long they seeped into the walls. John and his companions entered, making themselves at home after a few spells from Vallya cleansed the outdated and likely filthy furniture. Ten minutes passed, then twenty, then an hour. John wanted to return to their new world as quickly as possible, if only to avoid having to think about and consider the dangers awaiting them there, but he **** himself to wait. Security and safety were far more important than his own comfort... or anyone else's.

The waiting didn't stop until John's phone at last chimed as his alarm went off, signalling the end of an hour since they arrived. Sophia and Vallya were lying at his sides on the bed while Arista stood at the foot of the bed, gazing down upon them in a way that would have been more disturbing and frightening if she had not been completely under his thrall.

"It's time for us to go back," John said, trying not to sound as relieved as he felt. "Everyone ready?"

"As ever, my Father," Sophia swore.

"Good. The sooner we get out of here, the better," John grumbled, whisking them away with his World Shift. Though he hadn't made much use of the ability during his year away, he'd managed to shave its cooldown to only a single hour while hunting the Albidians. It was still a decent wait, but it was fast enough that it would be ready long before his lovers finished their nap.

"Will we be training at all while we are back here, Father?" Sophia asked.

"Do you ever think about anything besides training? I'm feeling pretty bushy," Vallya said, pulling one of her tails in front of her.

"Don't you mean bushed?" John asked, quirking an eyebrow.

"Nope. Haven't you seen these things?" Vallya teased, snaking a tail out and running the rather 'bushy' appendage along his jawline. "If you want something really comfortable to take a long nap in, you know where to find me, cutie." With that Vallya hovered away, floating along toward their home.

"Father, where will she stay?" Sophia asked, glaring at Arista. The harpy had taken it upon herself to **** Arista to kneel now that they were back in their new world. "Shall I tie her up again, or will we be allowing her the use of one of the empty rooms?"

"No, I don't like that idea," John said with a sigh. "I didn't design those rooms for seclusion, they're too close together and there's no easy way to reinforce them. I don't like the idea, but I'm going to have to add another section to our base – a prison. We're going to be delving into the metal stockpile to make properly secured cells, and some of the enchanting supplies to reinforce them and put a rudimentary alarm in there. Evellyn, add a reminder to my task list to restock those once we finish dealing with this Order problem."

"Affirmative," John's virtual assistant said, her voice echoing in his mind. She didn't bother to appear in front of him through one of his menus, but he heard a soft 'ding' sound as she added it onto one of his private reminder lists.

"Where will you be adding the prison onto, Father?"

John thought over the question carefully. It wasn't an option he'd really been considering until just the day before, so he didn't have as much time as he would have liked to ponder all the possibilities. Rebuilding the home that had been burned down a year ago was not a simple ordeal... nor was it one John undertook lightly.

The weeks after John's retreat into his new, private world were a bit of a blur. Consumed by a mixture of grief and rage, most of it was a blur – even the hunt and extermination of the remaining Albidian cells was a haze of anger and blood. John couldn't actually say to the day how long it had taken him to finally put the literal foundations of their new base down, but once he had, he threw himself into its construction wholeheartedly. His prior efforts to establish a base for their new world had been rather haphazard and chaotic. Every part of it, from the plains, to the lake, the forest, and even their home, much less Lunaya's home... all of it had come about in the heat of the moment, created and sometimes even imagined by the necessity of the situation they found themselves thrust into. John's new home for himself and his lovers had been crafted far more intricately and intentionally.

As had its surroundings.

Located along the river between the forest and the desert, John had positioned his home so that two sides were bordered by the river less than a hundred yards away, and the other two were bordered by the forest, cleared to a similar distance. The physical landscaping of it gave them enough sight distance to spot anyone approaching, while the architecture of the land's design allowed John plenty of opportunities to weave in countermeasures to assaults, though he hoped they would never need to be tested.

Their home itself was also quite segmented and walled in, though to a somewhat lesser degree. There was a large, central building that served as both a lobby and a "prep room". It was where Orria stored most of her surveying gear, and where John kept emergency supplies for the rest of them, as well as anything else they didn't need to keep around their rooms most of the time. From there, four other buildings stood nearby, separated by enough distance to prevent a fire from catching between constructions.

One building was dedicated to training and the erection of barriers, consisting mostly of empty sparring areas. It was mostly for the others to use - John's Dungeon Barriers tended to work fine wherever they were placed, but for others like Vallya, it seemed like they usually took on the appearance of their surroundings and could potentially be entered without knowing what was inside, so anyone doing something dangerous had to create the Barrier away from the living area.

The second was a storage area, where John had placed several chests – some magical and some normal – to store the resources from their Barrier runs and to provide a sort of large "closet" for his creations and their many desires. It was where John kept all the materials they harvested from their farming and levelling sessions that they had no immediate use for. The third building was a crafting and construction area, one that contained all the requisite technologies and workbenches to utilize the full extent of their technological advancement, whether through John's Crafting ability or through the manual efforts of him or his lovers. Given that his Crafting skill rarely required tools that he couldn't easily stash in his inventory, this was also an area that was usually for the use of others, mostly Orria.

The fourth was the actual living quarters. Secured by multiple enchantments hidden in the land around it, the living area looked mostly indiscernible from a normal house - John had even constructed it with proper siding and windows this time - but was just shy of an actual fortress. During their first night with their new captive, John had simply instructed Sophia to tie Arista up using some of their enchanted rope, trusting the collar, the rope, and a set of watchful eyes to keep her in check, but he knew that was not a solution he would be comfortable with for a long period of time. Despite the collar being allegedly impossible to break out of for someone of Arista's strength, John had no intentions of trusting Arista after what she had done... after what she had cost him. A cell was needed, no matter how rushed or improper.

"I have no intentions of becoming a warden for the lost and forsaken," John said at last, shaking his head with firm resolution. "We will erect a temporary dwelling in front of the main entrance to our complex, and I will reinforce it with enough magic and steel to ensure that any escape attempts alert us to her treachery."

"Not confident enough in the collar you bound me with?" Arista asked as John admitted his hesitance. Her words must have been just aggressive or offensive enough to trigger her **** collar, because John watched as a wave of pain washed over her face after she spoke. While the mercenary queen was still twitching from the pain, John strode over to her and laid his hand upon her cheekbone.

"After what you did, I will never have enough confidence to risk anyone's life or freedom," John said simply, his thumb stroking along Arista's jawline. "A mistake you should know intimately. Tell me, how well did trusting the Albidians go for you, even for the sake of your own freedom?"

"The choice I made was not an easy one... but it was the right one," Arista said, snarling slightly before the collar tightened around her neck, forcing her into a more submissive expression. She drew several long breaths before she composed herself again, meeting John's gaze with annoyance and hatred.

"The Albidians threatened to enslave me. As you well know by now, that is the one thing I refused to allow to happen again. They were strong enough to enforce their threat, had the knowledge and persistence to do so even if I allied myself with the Order... and I genuinely believed they would spare me if I assisted them, if only for the sake of convincing others down the line to give into their demands rather than resisting to the ****. I would have fled after my trade, save for the fact that-"

"Except for the part where I defeated the Albidians you were so terrified of, and allowed the Order to apprehend you shortly after my departure?" John asked, half-rhetorically. Before he had even fully considered the action, his hand had found its way to the collar around Arista's neck, twisting it and tightening it to the point his captive could barely breathe.

"No. I intended to face the Order’s punishment for my actions. It was you. You... surprised me," Arista admitted. John grinned and loosened his grip around her neck... an action he regretted when she managed to gasp long enough to recover her breath and glare at him again.

"You underestimated me," John said simply, quirking an eyebrow at the collared woman.

"I did... I underestimated what a piece of shit you are," Arista said. The moment the words left her mouth, Arista's face twisted in agony, but despite the obvious pain on her face, she managed to **** herself to her feet and stepped forward until her nose was nearly pressed against John's own. Though her expression twitched with obvious pain and strain from the collar punishing her for her words, Arista maintained eye contact as she spoke directly to John.

"I made my decision based on the fact that the Order has a reputation of morality... that their imprisonment, their interrogation, even their **** was based on the idea of atonement. Through pain and suffering, one becomes closer to Gaia, and all of their means were to justify the end of serving their Lady. All that self-righteous nonsense, and the fact that there were lines even the Order themselves would not cross. What I never considered was that someone like you would sink so low from their grief into a vengeful, spiteful, immoral prick that they would-"

"Collar override – 'Manners' protocol level three."

John's words were quick and practiced, but he was still relieved to see he had spoken the command properly when Arista's self-righteous tirade was cut off at the source. Her face twitched, first in pain and then in anger, before she was **** to her knees by the repeated shocks and magical pulses from her collar. John took hold of Arista's collar and **** her eyes up to his own, meeting her barely-restrained defiance with a merciless indifference.

"What you never considered," John said slowly, pressing their foreheads together as he refused to allow Arista's eyes to leave his own, "is that someone would call you on your bullshit. That your concern for your own life and freedom would be punished appropriately. You had options, you had choices, you had decisions to make. You believed the Albidians were not going to be defeated, that if they took you, they would hold you forever."

"That's not true, I-"

"I don't care," John spat, cutting Arista off completely. "You made your decision. I faced its consequences... and now you will face the punishment. Bow before me, and remain silent."

The collar glowed as its enchantments went into full effect. Arista's face twisted with only a minimal resistance before the **** collar **** her to bend forward until her face was pressed into the ground. Arista didn't make another sound as John turned his gaze slowly to Sophia.

"I'm going to make a proper prison for her in front of the main building. Go relax for a while, Sophia."