Wallace

Valentine did not immediately break into a furious rant. In fact, she didn't say a thing. Instead, assisting me wordlessly in escorting this batch of girls to the hotel.

Amity and Regina had already taken the others in, though I was not pleased to hear that some of Regina's captives needed treatment from Amity.

To be fair, I was not exactly in a spotless position, one of the elves still cradled their broken arm, but I had thought Regina strong enough to do the job without extending her claws.

Our would-be conquerors had brought a second vehicle- we'd seen as much when they passed us, heading north to the city -and when we pulled up, I was pleased to see it already sitting under the portico.

I had the driver park the second truck beside the first, and Amity came out to herd the girls into the lobby, where we found the rest of the fey waiting in the sitting area.

Amora caught my eye as I entered. She sat behind the front desk, leaning back in the chair with her bare feet up on its surface.

Valentine did not say a word to either Amity or me as she headed for the elevator and stabbed the call button with her finger.

Amora caught my wince as I walked on over to where she reclined, and she gave me a little smirk as I crouched down beside her chair.

"She seems a little miffed."

"Oh, gotta be a demi-god to notice that? Gee, thanks."

Amora leaned over to pat my shoulder, "Don't fret. She'll calm down," she assured me, "And you'll have her eating out of your hand in no time."

"I'm sure you didn't wave me over just to provide some advice about girls."

"Oh, but I did!" Amora laughed, "Or don't you want to know what Simon's done to these poor things?"

"You've already got a read on them?"

Amora gave me the side-eye, "I'm a god, or have you forgotten? And I'll have none of this demi nonsense."

"Well, as we've already established, I'm not the god of patience, so why don't you spit it out?" I challenged, though all in good humour, "Do they really love him or is it all some chemical bullshit?"

Amora spread her arms and shrugged, "Is there truly a distinction? If there is something more than the physical, more than chemical bullshit, it’s not something I can tell in either case. I’m sure someone with more interest than me would be happy to debate the metaphysics, to ponder the philosophy and wonder if there might be more to our lives than the physical bodies we inhabit. But what I do know is that as far as my senses are concerned, they care as much for Simon as you do for Valentine."

"Well fuck."

"Actually, no."

I turned to regard Amora, "Excuse me?"

"Simon hasn't slept with any of them," Amora nodded at the crowd Amity busied herself with, "Not these few at least."

Amora raised an eyebrow when she saw my grimace, "Still not pleased with Simon, or more worried that I might know all the sordid details about your bedroom misadventures with Valentine?"

"Either? Both? I was going back and forth on Simon at first. Meeting him for the first time, he made a convincing case about why what he was doing was necessary. He also denied the rumours he was taking advantage of those loyal to him. The second time, well, I wondered if he had been entirely honest with me. But now I don't think I care. Simon was a medical student, not a software developer, but I hardly needed a degree in computer science to work out how I might put an end to the fey's pheromones. It took me a couple of days, once I worked out the theory? He's been here years. I think if he really wanted the sprites free, they would be. Either he's having too much fun living the isekai fantasy, or he's too much a coward to take the steps that must have occurred to him. And yeah, it's kinda weird that you can tell who someone has slept with."

"Most of us don't have a lusty fey at their beck and call to satiate their desires," Amora pointed out, "A lonely young man, busy with his studies and with little free time to pursue relationships, suddenly finds he's dramatically more attractive to the opposite sex? It doesn't surprise me that his priorities are a little askew, whether or not he’s sleeping with some or none of them. We both know there will be consequences to your methods. He has a good thing going, and it may just be that he doesn't want to rock the boat."

"Well, I'm gonna rock the fuck out of it for him. Can you deprogram these girls?"

Amora shook her head, "Even if I could, I'm not sure it would be a good idea. The process might not even stick. They'd remember loving him, and that alone might be enough to undo anything I might try without the slightest intervention on Simon's part. Though, if we're successful and force his exile, I should be able to console those he doesn't take with him when he departs. But that’s to say their sorrow and longing won’t be genuine."

"God only knows what other weird shit we'll have to untangle once we force him out."

"Don't you mean what I'll have to untangle?"

I shrugged, "I'll be around," I assured her, "But yeah, long term, it will be up to you."

Amora made a shooing motion, "Go, I imagine Val's waiting patiently for you to join her so she can yell at you. Amity and I can handle the girls."

I spared a glance for the gynoid, who seemed to be getting along fine, though I wasn't sure how Amora was meant to be helping.

"Call me if you need anything," I instructed as I stood and headed for the elevators.

I was hardly through the door before Valentine was on me. Verbally, I mean, as opposed to her regular method of greeting.

Valentine jabbed at me with her book, "Almost died, better now, on the way back?" she recited, "Are you trying to drive me mad? Are you trying to give me a heart attack? You send word that you're moving in and then suddenly go silent, right before the group you were meant to attack packs up and turns around? Leaving me up here, tearing my hair out as I scramble to come up with some way to rescue you, only to receive this glib bullshit half an hour later?"

I stepped forward and took her gently by the shoulders. I realized she was shaking, and she crumpled against my chest, the book still clutched in her hand as she tried vainly to circle my waist with her arms.

"I'm still mad at you!"

"Of course," I agreed reasonably, my voice low.

"What happened?" she demanded.

"I scared the hell out of them. I took out the two elves first, which was lucky since they were probably the best equipped for a fight, but one of the fey panicked. Chucked a lightning bolt right at my chest."

Val shuddered, and I rubbed her back soothingly, "It wasn't as bad as the rooftop," I assured her, "I mean, it didn't feel great, but I was conscious at least. I tried to fix it with Movement magic, but it turns out my amulet is a little too thorough. So I had to get it off, and I had a hard time just lifting myself to pull the amulet off-" I winced as Val squeezed me tighter, maybe I shouldn't have said that, but it was too late for hindsight, so I kept going, "But I did, and pretty much immediately passed out. Pretty sure the girls fixed whatever was wrong with me while I was out. The girl's friends seemed as shocked as I was when she blasted me, so they put me back together. When I woke up, I repaid them by manhandling them until they agreed to come quietly."

Val put her hand on the centre of my chest, "Are you feeling better now, at least?"

"I'm tired as hell, but that might just be the screwed up sleep schedule and spending these past few nights in the woods."

"Wallace, please tell me you've come up with something. Of course, it's all well and good for you to enchant tattoos for the rest of us," Val brushed her hand across her hip, "but even I don't need this to live. You do, how much longer can you go on like this before another accident happens?"

"I do have something-"

"Thank goodness," Val sighed.

"It's not a silver bullet," I hedged, not wanting to get her hopes up, "Just a trick to prevent a repeat of earlier. I seem to have a hell of a time dealing with electrical magic, but I think I've come up with a way to protect myself."

Val looked up at me, the book discarded, and both of her fists balled in the front of my sweater, "That's not enough."

"It's what I can do, Val. I don't need any fancy Time mana to do it either. It'll be easy," I promised, "and it'll stop something like this from happening again."

Val stepped back and ran her hands through her hair, "Until we find a new 'something like this,' and it kills you."

Considering the distressed fey standing before me, I grimaced and found I had little to console her with.

"Val, I've known since I was old enough to understand what death is that I wouldn't live very long. It's not as if I haven't thought about ways to solve the problem, but I've yet to come up with anything. It's the hand I was dealt. Most stuff isn't going to be that dangerous to me. I'm tough as hell in a lot of respects. The lightning thing is not one of those areas, but, I should be able to cover that with magic."

Val stepped back towards me and pressed the side of her face against my chest as if to listen, "But not the underlying problem. Can't you strengthen your heart in the way you strengthened my body?"

"It wouldn't solve the problem. It's not as simple as making my heart beat harder. The heart is not a simple organ, and it needs to be carefully regulated. All that making it pump harder is likely to do is increase my blood pressure."

"Fine. Fine, dammit. What is this plan you have to protect yourself from lightning magic?"

Val joined me before the hearth, where she built a fire while I ordered my thoughts and found my notes.

She pulled a blanket down off the couch and nestled against me, "I'm still angry," she murmured.

I smiled faintly and put an arm around her shoulders, "Don't worry, I haven't forgotten."

Val jerked her chin at the papers laid out in my lap, "What's all this?"

"So there was this old white dude named Faraday- no idea what his first name was -and he figured out a whole bunch of stuff to do with electricity. This is way back, way before all this," I explained, encompassing the room with a sweeping gesture, "This guy was working out how electricity works while toiling by lamplight. And one of the things he figured out was how to protect yourself from electromagnetic radiation. It's called a Faraday cage, because when you're an old stuffy scientist, you get to name the stuff you discover."

"I assume you're about to suggest something more practical than having us push you about in some iron cage."

"Cage isn't meant that literally. Even fine copper mesh would do the trick, but an actual cage would work, so long as you're not in contact with it. Imagine your example for a moment. Maybe the cage is on a rolling platform like you describe, maybe it's sitting on the bare ground. Either way, I'm inside, and while the cage and myself are both touching the ground, I'm not touching the cage. Now say I piss off some thunder god, and he chucks a lightning bolt at me. The bolt would strike the cage and follow the path to earth, grounding itself out."

"What if she fired the bolt between the bars?"

I shook my head, "The lightning bolt would leap to the bars and ground out. I mean, at some point that would stop being true, the bars would be too far apart, and the bolt could pass between. But the gaps would need to be pretty big."

"Which is why you mention the copper mesh?"

"Yeah- well, there are limits," I admitted, "Put too much current through the material, and it might melt, or it might not have the capacity to make much of a difference, and I could still get shocked."

"But you're not going to use iron bars or copper mesh."

"Quite right. I've got a couple ideas about how this could work. Transform, Movement, Create, and Control, are all possibilities."

"Do we have time for this sort of experimentation? Simon will expect a report from his girls. Particularly if they had time to mention they captured you, however briefly."

"I'll make time. Besides, I'm pretty sure you'd have something to say about it if I tried to rush off to the city without addressing this, at least in part. And I need at least a day to rest after tonight."

"More than a day," Val growled, "And don't think we're testing this on you!"

"Please, I didn't forget about your little stunt with the stun spell. I know exactly who we're testing this on."

Val thumped her hand against my chest, "Good. Maybe that will begin, in small part, to make up for your nonsense.