“You have a kid?” I ask the great, blue-crowned tree, standing before me wearing her smaller body. She holds the smaller clone of herself by the shoulders pressing her out towards me as if some sort of gift, though it feels to me some sort of trojan horse dressed up as a pretty woman.

The young woman, or at least it imitates a feminine in shape, is of a similar height to me, while her ‘mother’ stands as a giant behind her. Both their eyes move in swirling blue currents without any pupils to prove where they are looking at any point in time. It’s best to just assume that they see everything all the time.

The younger woman, her body covered in faint wooden grains, is burdened by the weight of what I have to assume is her true body. There are no straps, but the roots of the small sapling wrap around her shoulders and waist to keep it from slipping loose. A few patches of yellow/green leaves sit atop the branches.

“Hi,” the girl says, stepping up to me and waving at me, though we stand only a few metres apart. “I hope that you take good care of me.”

“Ah, yeah…” I say, “Blue?”

“I have many children,” she says, her voice steady. “Few ever prove themselves worth the investment, however, and I hope that this one will not be a disappointment.”

“What, may I ask do you use your children for?” I ask, dreading the answer already.

“They gather mana that is beyond my reach and are eventually consumed when they grow to a reasonable strength. Their wisdom and their strength become mine, as is the way of our people.”

“I’ll grow to be wise and strong, mother,” the young woman says, genuinely happy at the prospect. It’s difficult to get a feel for her age and it’s already making me feel rather uncomfortable.

From the way the translator is making sense of the discussion thus far, I feel like they’re discussing something marginally closer to the conglomeration that is Unity, rather than plain old cannibalism. I still hate it.

“I…” I could refuse, but that just leaves this kid to be used and killed when the time comes. Alternatively, I could steal the kid.

“I’ll take her in,” I say, smiling and opening my arms in welcome. “What’s your name?”

“Mother hasn’t given me a name,” she says, tilting her head as she looks between the two of us. I think I’m the only one who feels that this silence is awkward.

“Acacia,” I say, naming her, though I have no idea what that’ll convert to through their translators. “Come here, you big hunk of wood.”

The younger tree steps closer, wrapping her arms around me. Though her flesh is soft, she’s remarkably stiff, and the roots dig into my soft rubbery flesh. It’s a good thing that my flesh was made to be cuddly otherwise this would be twice as frustrating.

Acacia quietly counts out slowly while patting my back stiffly. After around five seconds pass, she breaks away, her smile too stiff to be considered natural.

“You will be training her in those facilities?” She asks me, showing no hint of her true feelings.

“So long as she’s interested in studying,” I say. “I wouldn’t turn down another student.”

“Good,” Blue slowly nods, “I expect that you will be giving her one of those new gadgets that you’ve been supplying the others?”

“She won’t be able to learn without it,” I say, seeing through her rather blatant intentions. She wants one of our new support devices, or at least to get a closer understanding of them, but to ask for one herself, she’d be putting herself under my influence which she will not do.

“How old are you?” I ask Acacia.

“I’m 43 years old,” she says. It’s not all that strange considering the rest of the strange people that I’ve come across.

“You’re nearly twice my age,” I say, looking up at her trying to figure out just how mature she is.

She’s comparatively small standing beside the much larger Blue-Crown, and her tree body is barely more than an oversized sapling. Does that mean that she’s still a baby? Or is she closer to an adult?

I’ll just have to take some time to talk with her over the next few weeks and get a feel for who she is. People are so much more complicated in this wider universe. For some species, it can take centuries to develop enough to have a proper conversation, while others are born with a fully-fledged identity and enough intelligence to make an average person look like an idiot.

Leaving behind her mother, we head down to the bunker base that Red’s people have constructed on the surface. The soldiers give us both a few strange looks, clearly interested in who Acacia is.

“What’s it going to be like?” she asks, heaving her main body on her back as she follows me down into the caves she’ll soon be calling home. “It’s not dark, is it? I’m not good with the dark, I shrivel up.”

“There’ll be plenty of light, if it’s not enough we can arrange something extra for you,” I say, heaving a sigh as I stretch out my robotic joints.

This new body is awesome!

There’s not too much time before Nel’s pregnancy comes to term, and even with the opening of the school and everything else keeping me busy, it’s hard to stay focused.

I’m going to be a mom.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A thousand kilometres away, my true body stands atop a mountain of stone. I catch one of the spears that cracks like lightning through the sky.

The stone beneath me shatters as the other spears crash into the mountainside, sending an entire slope crumbling down to the sea below where massive crabs swarm to consume the ferrets that have fallen.

“Eshya,” I shout.

She slips away from the fight diving down to the ocean and cutting down the crustaceans while puling the ferrets to safety.

The blue-skinned angels pierce the skies, seeking to slaughter the ferrets that are still crawling on the exposed mountainside, struggling to get clear now that their armoured ceiling has been stripped away.

I release a blast of concentrated annihilation at the last moment, catching a quarter of the enemy and sending the rest stumbling to try and avoid the threads of ash. Rare takes this moment to sweep by, spreading flames over feathered wings.

The bandits scream as their feathers burn. No longer defying gravity, they spiral down from the sky, their weapons falling from their hands. The ferrets, though still recovering from the loss of their first layer of defences, rush to the fallen angels, stabbing at them with empowered spears.

Blood spills on stone and the rest of the bandits circle cautiously above before turning and abandoning their fallen.

One of the survivors stands bravely back up, his wings still afire as he battles against the ferrets who swarm him. He slaps aside their spears with an open hand, struggling to reach another of the fallen, a woman, screaming out for him with her dying breath, spears piercing her through.

The man tries to reach her, shoving through the ferret swarm, even stomping on one young woman, whose spine folds under the force. She screams in pain, but he doesn’t seem to even notice.

I step in on the fight, grabbing the man and thrusting out with a straight punch. Threads of ash spiral through his chest, mincing his heart and everything around it.

The man falls with only a single bloody sigh, as the woman he was trying to reach, herself, falls silent. Her own life fades away, staining the grey stone vibrant red.

The ferrets rush to help their own wounded while finishing the last of their enemy. They drag away the young woman with the broken spine, and others rush to help Eshya with her rescue mission on the slopes to the ocean below.

I breathe in slowly, absorbing the taste of iron in the air as I look between the two bandits.

Were they lovers? Have they left behind children? Am I responsible for orphaning young children?

As truly awful as I feel about the situation, my only regret is that I couldn’t defuse this violence before it could begin. There was no saving these bandits once they chose to engage in battle.

Had I left these two to survive, then more ferrets would have died as a consequence. They are predator and prey, and in order to change that dynamic, I need to steal their culture from them, shatter their way of life, and force them to see one another as peers.

Even accepting that, I need more strength to achieve it. Assuming I succeed, I’ll need to find the food to feed them. Someone still has to die, in the end, it’s the nature of the universe and I’m still far from overcoming this basic hateful rule of life.

For today, I choose to stand with the ferrets and hopefully one day soon I can force the winged bandits into submission to end this conflict.

“Thank you,” a young ferret bows to me, scraping his head on the stone and weeping. “You saved countless lives today, we are deeply in your debt.”

“We are allies,” I say. “That was our agreement. Our warriors are protected in a corner of your grand city, and we will, in turn, protect your city.”

“Thank you,” he says again. “Thank you.”

“You would think that we saved them from certain death for all of this gratitude,” Eshya says, laughing awkwardly as a whole group of young ferrets follow after her, silently bowing and offering thanks.

“Well, in your case you actually did,” I say. “How many did you pull from the hungry crabs?”

“Most of them,” she says, decidedly unhappy about that outcome, the difference between most and all is a heavy burden to bear. “It’s a mess down there, and it’s…”

“We can’t save them all,” I say, gritting my teeth as I stare at one body of a young man. What happens if it’s my son or daughter who is the one I can’t save next time?

I chase the thought away.

The fight was easy enough, but we still couldn’t come away with a perfect victory. There are those who won’t return home from this fight, families who will grieve, and bloody memories that won’t ever be forgotten.

Yet, those who are gone will slowly be forgotten as the days turn to years and life drags on.

Can I really end war entirely?

The elves managed to, though I’m not certain I can approve of their answer, they have at least proven that it’s possible to win against chaos and war.

“I must say that I had my doubts when you first came to us,” a young prince strides out from the tunnels, watching the recovery efforts with great interest. The stone that fell is soon replaced and the outer defences restored to what they were.

“You’ve proven yourself true to your word,” he says.

“It’s relieving to hear you say that,” I say. “When the mountain fell under my feet, I was worried that we’d lost your whole city.”

He chuckles quietly with the sort of refinement that would be expected of any noble.

“We’ve considered your offer, and would like to send a few families with you to your home. Your intent is to train them as you have your own people?”

“Exactly,” I nod in quick reply. “I want to prepare our youth for the challenges of life and grant them the Skills necessary to overcome all the challenges that this world, and the universe beyond, will bring.”

The ferret chitters softly in cheerful excitement.

“This is simply too good of a deal for us,” he says shaking his head. “Are you sure that you’re not a monster in disguise, promising us the sky only to steal away our children?”

“Oh, I am a monster, but I want to steal your whole kingdom,” I say. “Give me the time, and I’ll show you a world so brilliant that you can’t refuse me. You’ll give it all up with a smile.”

“I’m half convinced that you’re insane,” the prince chuckles. “But sometimes, it isn’t so bad to be insane.”

The ferrets work with the stone, warping it with their natural talents and shaping it into grand defences. They’ve lived here for countless generations, but the taller they’ve made the mountain, the thicker their defences, the bigger a target they’ve become.

We haven’t saved them from certain ruin, but we have prevented countless deaths.

“Do you know any other societies that I could reach out to?” I ask. “Any groups or factions that are worth talking to?”

“Any other kingdoms worth stealing?” he chuckles. “I know of one, but… I do not think even you could convince them of anything.”

“It doesn’t hurt to try,” I say. “Worst comes to worst and I can just beat them all into submission. Heck, I’d be doing that to those damn flying bandits if they weren’t nesting in that purple tree of theirs.”

“You’ll find this group just as difficult,” the ferret says. “Look in the deep oceans and you’ll find them. A society that spreads through the entire deep, a democracy if you would believe such a silly concept. They actually choose their leaders through ‘voting’ for them and share everything between them. It’s utterly insane. I guess it shows how successful they are that they can waste time and effort on such things.”

“Well, isn’t that interesting…” I say, staring into the ocean. “What about the waves? If there’s intelligent life down there? Why would they throw countless dumb beasts at the shore like that?”

“I never have figured that part out,” the ferret says, shaking his head. “If you do find the answer, then share it with me, would you?”

“Sure,” I nod quietly. “Now show us who our new immigrants are.”

Not much longer…

Soon our children will be born.

Soon I’m going to be a mum.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Stats and Skills

~Mana Form:

Current mana crystallisation:

-2.1% at 78,231 (Stage 2)

-97.9% at 60,892 (Stage 1)

Current mana volume: 30,450 / 30,450 shards

Mana volume at Stage 1 crystallisation (Max. mana volume):

Kyra: 30,271 shards

Kyra’s armour: 20,777 shards

Kyra’s throne: 1,109,298 shards

~Forms

Mana Canon

-Annihilation Heart (Adapted)

-Blood Fuel (Adapted)

-Bone Magic Storage (Adapted)

-Nail Shifters (Adapted)

Dancer

-Flash Nerves (Adapted)

-Quick Perception Mind (Adapted)

-Burst Reflex Muscles (Adapted)

-Layered Space Muscles (Adapted)

Turtle

-Rebinding Tissue (Adapted)

-Catalyst Sweat Glands (Adapted)

-Repulsive Skin (Adapted)

-Prehensile hair (Adapted)

-Fatty Tissue Blood Storage (Adapted)

Investigator

-Wide eyes (Adapted)

-Wide ears (Adapted)

-Sharp nose (Adapted)

Misc.

-Clean bowels (Adapted)

-Mana Drive (Adapted)

~Favourited Skills:

Magic:

-Annihilation Magic (Customised)

-Fire Magic (Functional)

-Space magic (Broken)

-Force magic (Functional)

-Ice magic (Broken)

-Wind magic (Broken)

Movement:

-Hand-to-hand casting (Mastered)

-Mana surge movement (Customised)

-Stealth (Functional)

Senses:

-Eyes of an Empire (Customised)

-Combat Awareness (Mastered)

-Watchmen (Functional)

-Hidden bug (Mastered)

-De-tagging (Mastered)

-Anti-stealth sight (Mastered)

Special:

-Spirit Transformation (Broken)

-Conformity (Broken)

-Training mana form (Functional)