The Holy One is one of the least loved gods outside of the nation that he acts as patron for. He is a human supremacist and as such has very few non-human worshipers. Those that do follow him however are often zealous in their faith as he nurtures that trait in his churches. His main domains are Purity and Light, though many not of his faith disagree with his versions of these principles.

Adrian

When I wake I find myself using Ria as a pillow though she seems to have enjoyed it. I can tell she’s awake from the bond formed last night but humor her for a few minutes before 'waking' her with a kiss. I wouldn’t mind spending all day in bed but there is too much to do. Besides that, I am a young man, I can lounge around with my harem when I’m older; I should be focusing on getting a nicer place to do that in and building wealth.

I sit up and smell the morning air in my piece of shit drafty hut before stretching and getting dressed in some fresh clothes, using a few applications of a cantrip to clean up. Definitely one of the most needed applications of magic in the modern world.

“Why’d you have to use magic to clean up. I wanted to watch you shower” Ria complains.

“I'll remember that for mornings that are slower. Here, this should help you learn English like you wanted.” I say before pulling out one of several handwritten dictionaries and pronunciation guides in Void Cache.

“I don’t speak Elvish.”

“Yes, but Kythia has a similar book for learning Elvish.”

“Can't you teach me?”

“I will but when I’m not available the book will be” I answer her as I help her up off of the bed, healing her a bit for the soreness from hours ago as I do so.

I touch the bed and store it in Void Cache as I do not know if we are going to come back here and I am not leaving it behind. So long as I am in this world it is practically irreplaceable. I then pause for a moment to watch Ria get dressed, not just for my own enjoyment though. I don’t mind if Kythia sees her but there is a good chance that Analais and Bryan are waiting for me in the main room.

I open the door to find that my guess was mostly right, Kythia, Bryan and Abagail are there waiting. All of them also seem tired. Did Ria and me keep them up? I thought we were fairly quiet, quieter than K and me get and no one ever seemed to mind the noise before. I guess it doesn’t make too much of a difference if they are fatigued. I didn’t plan on counting on them when a fight breaks out, not yet anyways. They aren’t combat ready. Bryan’s close but he doesn’t have the mindset he did from the timeline of the better me.

Should I send him through a bloodbath of people he knew? Bending light and having Ria cover tactile sensations could do it. No, I’m not sure he’d believe it and it isn’t ethical to do it for real. I could just let K, Kylana and Analais beat him into shape like they helped me. They can be scarier than most anything we might encounter. . .

“Good morning” K says to me but she still seems slightly upset to I run over and hug her and say “I missed you.”

“No you didn’t, you were too busy with the fox.”

That is very much true but I’ll never admit it, to her, and it is not what she wants to hear.

“Kythia, of course he missed you” Ria states as she turns it into a group hug. Which bails me out because now K has forgotten the current topic in favor of pushing Ria off the two of us.

I glance over to Bryan and Abagail to see Abagail giving me a glare. She’s pissed I’m being immoral. Bryan however just seems tired, and a bit jealous. K begins to growl at Ria and for a moment I think about just watching the two of them fight out their differences as K wouldn’t maim or kill Ria and I don’t think Ria could cause any lasting damage.

“Kythia, Ria now isn’t a time to fight each other” I say and Ria immediately moves to stand on the other side of me, separating herself from K, who only growls at her for another second.

That worked better than I thought it would. I knew Ria would obey with a smile but not K. Must be something she sees as on the male side of authority. . .

“Are you done with harem shenanigans?” Bryan asks.

“I think so” I answer only to notice Ria stick her tongue out at K as my back is turned. Which, like K, I choose to ignore at the moment.

“Care to fill us in on what is going on now?”

“Long version or summary?”

“Summary, you don’t have enough time to tell them everything” K interjects.

I nod, there is a lot to do but most of it is travel time so I can give them more details during that.

“As you already know, I am from the future though that timeline is very different from this one. So even if I did tell you spoilers they’d likely be wrong. I am not the one who performed whatever it was that threw me through time but there were side effects. I’ve recovered from most of them but there are still some holes in my memory.

I’ve been living with Pack Bloodclaw and was adopted into it.”

“You’re a werewolf now?” Bryan interrupts and K frowns. She really wants me to be but . . .

“No, I can’t catch lycanthropy. Not even as a carrier. You probably shouldn’t bring that up again.

Anyways, so I’m an adult member of this community and Kythia and me are their equivalent of married.”

“Then why did you just cheat on her with Ria?” Abagail asks and I have to physically catch K as she started to lunge at her. I should have had this conversation in English.

“Kythia you can punish her later but she doesn’t know better right now” I say to K to which she does nod and stop her would be mauling. I don’t let go though I’m sure if she wanted bad enough to, she could get out of my grasp.

“Why are you attacking me? He's the one. . .” Abagail starts before her voice goes silent and I feel a smirk from my bond with Ria. Again, she deserves to be proud of her actions. I should learn how she does that, a Concealed Silence or is it a Quickened? Definitely beyond my scope of magic at the moment.

“Abagail, that is not the subject we are talking about. If you really want to get into the morals and legality of my relationships, it will have to be later.

In each of their cultures and societies, I am the equivalent of their husband. Now, moving on to current events, yesterday Kythia and me destroyed the Althaen camp where almost all the soldiers were and today along with the rest of those still alive among the Bloodclaw we are going to go and deal with the remnants.

After this I’m going to try and get both of you some help in becoming actually combat ready.”

Bryan laughs, “Adrian, I’m a better fighter than you.”

I just smirk and ask, “Kythia, how long until the others want to leave?”

“An hour? Mother is trying to decide if she is going to ask you to store her library or risk Shadow Cache Storage. While everyone else is still caring for the dead” she answers.

“You can tell Kylana my storage method is more stable. So Bryan we’ve most of an hour. How about a spar?”

Should I feel guilty over what I’m about to do? I feel guilt but it doesn’t make sense. Whatever, this isn’t wrong.

I stand up and motion everyone to follow me outside. I don’t see anyone in the immediate vicinity but that isn’t too important as I turn to Bryan and ask, “armed or unarmed?”

“Unarmed, I don’t want to accidently kill you” he answers.

I could probably win without it but I fall into my Battlemind, which I now remember is only a slight alteration to Spatial Aim. I am doing this to make a point after all. Sure, he is better than the foot soldier fodder the Althaen want him to be but he is not ready for anyone of true skill. I’m not either, but I can cheat.

I matrix dodge the first punch for the hell of it before catching and breaking his arm when I catch the second punch. I didn’t mean to but K's bones are much harder than his and he should have broke the hold. Shit, well at least I can undo it.

“Sorry, give me a second” I say as I warp reality and force his body to repair itself in an instant as I pull it straight letting the muscles align the bones.

That didn’t stop Abagail from rushing over and fussing over the arm. She really does like him.

“What? How?” Bryan asks.

“My understanding of some aspects of my magic are better than you’ve seen earlier. That and I have more raw power than before.”

“But it didn’t even take a second, and it was broken bone. Do you know how hard that is to magically heal without even setting it?”

“Yes I do, and I actually did set it as it healed. That’s why I pulled on it. Still, sorry I didn’t mean to.”

“You should have broke Adrian’s hold earlier, he was expecting you to so he could use its threat to force you into a pin” K interrupts.

“How is that even right?” Bryan begins before K cuts him off.

“If you don’t get it, you’re lacking experience.”

“You don’t have to be mean about it” Abagail says but I don’t pay full attention to her. She's Bryan’s and even if I did want her, her morals would complicate everything to much. That and in both sets of memories, she hasn’t had much combat potential.

“No, it proves the point and that means they care. That they don’t want me to die” Bryan says as he realizes the why. He knew he wasn’t the strongest and that he couldn’t take on an army himself. He would have been right about my physical powers save for a few small details, training with Kythia, cheating with Ravnos Magic and most importantly I’m a dragon.

I smile and withdraw a few books from Void Cache and hand them to Bryan as I say, “they’re on combat magic and the descriptions are garbage but the top book is on mana control. You should be able to figure it out from there.”

“I can’t read these” he says after looking over the books.

“They’re in Elvish. I gave Ria an English to Elvish dictionary and grammar guide so she can help you as you help her with English.” I then turn to K and continue, “Kythia can I ask you a favor?”

“What?” she answers.

“Can you help Ria learn Elvish when I’m not available?”

“I can barely read Elvish, let alone speak or teach it.”

“Please? We all need to learn each others’ languages rather than using Althaen as a common tongue.”

“You know we could all just purchase them from the Architect.”

“That would not be as ingrained and there are far better ways to use the rewards.”

She nods, acquiescing to the request though I’m sure Ria and her will fight during it. I wonder if I should try to twist that in a way to get them to try to out perform each other. Healthy competition, but what should the reward be?

Alone time would be the most effective but no. Aside from morally I just don’t feel right about that, maybe if I didn’t actually love them I would do that. Food? Lessons on the ideas I taught them before? If only I could have started actually consciously using mana before the time travel.

“Are you already packed up?” Analais asks as he walks up, I can see Kylana being helped by Alana to carry several large sacks full of provisions, books, and other necessities.

“Well there was only one item I needed to bring that wasn’t already in my storage magic” I answer.

“Good, because I doubt the pack will return to this place.”

“Oh mate of my daughter, care to help your den mother?” Kylana says in her ever-teasing fashion. I don’t think I’ve ever given her much of a rise but as always K does, even if it is to simply move a little behind me in a pitiful attempt to avoid further teasing from her mother.

Though for once it did work as I go ahead and distract her, “so Alana, have you started you plans for your next hut yet?”

Alana of course is more than happy to begin talking about how there are so many minor things about the layout if the hut that need to change, including the mostly perverse reasons why. I don’t pay attention to it but she knew what I was trying to do and is more than happy for the excuse to brag about Analais to her friend.

I should probably make sure Abagail never learns this particular language. Even now the two of them have no qualms about what they are saying. I’m not even sure they’d care if Bryan and Abagail could understand them.