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Summoned by Monster Girls - Chapter 82
🕑 Added 2024-10-26 08:00:02 +0000 UTCJameson hung around for about an hour before he had to run off to get back to work. I spent the rest of Wednesday experimenting with the glass and metal samples that Cariad had brought me.
While the neutral metal cube she’d provided was simple enough to work with, the glass fought me a lot more than the local stuff had. I ended up pouring most of my fifty points of mana into the glass to get it to respond. The cubes were enough to make a set of earrings that would look good against her slate-blue skin and a necklace with another dozen of the pearls.
The necklace gave me a bit of trouble in figuring out how to make it work. I didn’t have the equipment to drill into the pearls, and they didn’t react when I tried to shape them. I could loop the glass like I was with the earrings, but then they’d all slide down to bunch up.
I ended up getting distracted and going down a rabbit hole of research for a bit then. The answer to why I could make the pearls with Shape-Shifting, but not mold them, ended up being found at the end of an Internet search.
Turns out that nacre, the material that makes up pearls, is actually known as a bio-mineral rather than a regular mineral. I figured that the proteins present in the matrix were what prevented me from molding them with Manipulate Element.
But since I couldn’t actively mold the material of the pearl, I had to find other ways to get the necklace to lay right. The loops in the glass worked fine to hold it to the thin, flexible wire I’d made. I hit on the idea while looking at other examples online. A couple of spacers in the form of small glass beads kept the design where it was supposed to be.
When they were all finished, I sent a message off to Cariad using the System messaging. She didn’t reply, instead just popping out of one of her portals in my kitchen about ten minutes later with a happy squeal and a bounce.
Cariad pounced on the jewelry and immediately put it on. When she started muttering about how to pay me for the work, I pushed it off, saying that it was a gift as my thanks for her work supporting me thus far.
“Liam, if I could do it without hurting you, you’d be getting a big kiss as thanks for these. They are absolutely beautiful!”
Cariad had commandeered my little bathroom to look at herself in the mirror. I stood outside, leaning against a wall and watching as the excited woman inspected herself from every angle.
Her statement made a lump of regret form in my chest.
What? Where did that come from? I thought in surprise, watching as Cariad gently removed one of the earrings and held it up to the light to study it closer. Am I? No, that’s dumb. Of course I’m attracted to Cariad. Next to Kass and Rieka, she’s been the nicest to me out of anyone. And she’s dead sexy, in an erotic secretary sort of way. No way though. Like she said, touching her would melt my face off. Keep the danger in mind.
Despite my self-directed warnings, I couldn’t help the slight upwelling of regret that settled there in my chest and refused to move.
Cariad wasn’t able to hang around for long, as she’d stepped away from her desk on a break to come pick these up. So she thanked me again, moving like she was about to hug me, but stopped herself a moment later, then ducked through a portal with a blush.
“Damn,” I mumbled, staring into the mirror at my tired reflection in my once more silent apartment.
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Thursday rolled around to find me sprawled in my bed.
I was just enjoying the small pleasure of not having to get up at a set time for work and exchanging mental messages with my girls when a rap-tap-tapping came at the front door. The noise was far too polite to be any of my neighbors or Jameson coming back to harass me, and Cariad would have messaged me in advance after nearly getting caught by Jameson.
Rolling out of bed, I quickly yanked on the first set of jeans that I spotted and hurried out to check who it was. I glanced at the clock as I went by the kitchen and was surprised to find it was only a bit after nine.
Pausing by the door, I considered again who this might be. After Jameson acted like a jackass yesterday, it was entirely possible those thug kids had decided to come back and cause some problems.
Naw, if they did, it wouldn’t be these polite taps, I thought. Rather than risk it, I shifted my left hand into the lizard-like war claws that I’d learned so long ago from Lady Valda in passing, then pressed my eye to the peephole.
A wall clad in faun business attire stood inches from my front door. I couldn’t see a face, but from how wide said wall was, I had a feeling who was standing outside my front door. I let my hand shift back to normal while fiddling with the locks.
“Good morning Cerebaton, what brings you here so early?” I asked after I’d unlocked and opened the door, looking up just slightly to catch eyes with my weapons instructor and Cariad’s boss.
Cerebaton was again in his ‘human guise’, appearing a lot like a more bulky version of Dolph Lundgren. His outfit looked like someone had tried to design a business suit but took heavy influence from a frock coat in the style and cut. He stood with his hands crossed over his waist, waiting patiently while I took him in.
“Good morning, Liam. I wanted to have a word with you about recent events. It looks like I caught you dressing. Have you eaten yet?” Cerebaton’s deep voice rumbled, but not threateningly. He just sounded like that most all the time.
“Was being a bit lazy. And no, I haven’t eaten yet. I can whip up some food.”
“How about we have something local instead? I believe the phrase is ‘you fly, I’ll buy’?” Cerebaton offered with a tight-lipped smile.
Ookay, that is a bit odd. Whatever brought him here can’t be that serious though if he’s risking being overheard by folks, I thought.
“What about—” I started to ask, but Cerebaton waved a hand.
“Do not worry yourself about the normal reaction. I can employ sufficient caution to not draw attention to us.”
“Fair enough. Let me get a shirt and my boots then. Come on inside.”
I made sure to send my girls a final set of messages to let them know I was heading into a meeting, and got loving replies by the time I finished dressing.
The drive to a nearby diner that served breakfast was a bit stilted, but that was also somewhat normal for Cerebaton. The gruff man asked a few questions about my plans for getting by without a regular job, to see if I had come up with any other ideas besides making pearls. That petered out when we got to the diner.
It was one of those old ‘hole-in-the-wall’ type places that really tried to tap into the retro vibe, but everything felt a bit shy of the mark. While the decor looked like it came straight from the nineteen-sixties, it also had the wear and tear to make it feel like it really was that old. But it was clean, the food was good, and they kept the good kind of oldies playing, so I liked it.
We placed our orders with a smiling older woman with gray hair whose name tag read Dolores.
I got coffee with a mess of hash browns and eggs with a side of bacon. Cerebaton ordered orange juice, and a ham steak with four eggs over-easy for his food.
I just got a slight smile from the older waitress, but Cerebaton got a sunny grin and a wink from the older woman. Apparently, Dolores liked his suit better than my jeans. Cerebaton returned her wink with a genial smile that fell away as soon as her back was turned.
Once Dolores had moved on with a promise to be right back with our drinks, Cerebaton leaned back in his seat and carefully folded his gloved hands in front of him, watching me.
“So, what’s up?” I tried to act nonchalant, but the big man was staring at me with those piercing eyes like he was America drilling for oil and my face was a middle-eastern country. Thankfully, he didn’t keep me waiting long.
“I originally wanted to check in with you about the facility that you and your summoners found. But I have something a bit more pressing to speak to you about,” Cerebaton said slowly, his fingers steepled in front of him.
Before my stat boost, I might have not caught on so quickly. As my brain finally finished settling and healing from the massive stat boost, though, I was noticing and making connections a lot faster now. At least when I had something to work off. And Cerebaton hadn’t been this stern with me except for a few times in the past, so it was easy to sort through them and figure out what was bothering the big man.
“Are you worried about Cariad’s new jewelry?” I asked when he paused for effect.
Cerebaton blinked at me, his head tilting to one side and that sharp jawline of his cast odd shadows over his neck for a moment before he nodded.
“Indeed. She claimed it was a gift. But, even with the materials being created by you, I know that there was more than a little bit of value to those pieces…” Cerebaton let the statement trail off and I knew where this was going. He’d warned me in the past about hurting Cariad, after all.
“Don’t worry about it, Cerebaton. I meant what I said. It was just a gift to Cari, as thanks for her help and support. She also got some of the materials as I needed something that wouldn’t dissolve when she touched it, and the cost for the pearls was negligible to me. I just wanted to thank her, promise.” The big man continued to stare at me intently for several long moments. “Seriously, I am quite aware of the fact that touching her would kill me. That's why she had to get the special materials.”
“All right. I just worry about her,” Cerebaton said at last, the tension slowly leaving his body and the sharpness of his jaw relaxing as he stopped clenching his teeth.
“Like a good boss would for their underlings. But you know me, I’m not the kind of person who’d hurt people like that. My girls wouldn’t ever put up with it, anyway. Kass would give me a knock around the head for even thinking of toying with a woman, and it would disappoint Rieka. They both want to meet Cari and you, though. To say their thanks for all the help you’ve given me.”
My statement drew a smile to Cerebaton, and he chuckled slightly, low in his throat.
“That may never happen, as the DSR is very hands off with locals. But I will keep it in mind if the opportunity arises. I view Ms. Davies as something akin to a little sister, since she is so new to my department. You will have to forgive me for being a bit protective.”
“Nothing to forgive, Cerebaton. Anyway, you said you had originally wanted to talk about the ruins? Did Cari miss something when filling me in?”
Dolores returning with the drinks interrupted us a moment later, but once she had poured and left, Cerebaton began fiddling with something inside his jacket while talking.
“Ms. Davies handled everything quite well, actually. But I wanted to thank you myself for your quick action in contacting us, for one. And also to add my personal request to return and check the facility over again when you have time. But especially before you reveal the location of the ruined facility to any locals. We are confident that we got everything that might refer to entropic entities. But, as the facility itself eluded detection by the System for so long until you discovered it?”
“I might stumble onto something you guys missed? Makes sense, different point of view might give different information. I know the girls wanted to go back, and I think they are working on recruiting a new addition to the team as well.” I couldn’t help the slight smile as I remembered how cute the moth-winged woman, Shayla, had been as she clung to my arm in spite of her size.
“Oh? Having additional help might be good, but including additional targets you have to protect might not be the best choice.”
Cerebaton pulled a short metal straw out of his jacket and dropped it into his juice, then raised the whole thing to sip lightly from the glass.
The sight of the shiny metal straw made me blink, but when Cerebaton set the glass down and it hadn’t corroded from the touch of his bare skin, I understood better.
“Handy to have, that.” I nodded to the straw, and he smirked.
“Yes, but only on cold drinks. Using it in hot ones will lead to burning your mouth with it. Even with our unique reactions”
“Got it. Have iced tea ready when you guys come by again, to save on my mug collection,” I said with a laugh.
“This new contract, that is the one that you mentioned the other day, yes?”
Cerebaton was relaxing more as the seconds passed by. We discussed plans for us to return to the ruins sometime in the next few weeks to finish our inspection before turning it over Rieka’s mom.
Cerebaton understood the significance of it and the wisdom of having the military be the ones to secure and clear the site rather than some students and their hired bodyguard, but still pressed the request. I got why as well. If the Queen found anything regarding entropic creatures, it would be immeasurably more difficult to erase the information without getting the attention of others.
Dolores brought our food, and the conversation fell off a bit as we ate. Cerebaton worked deftly with a knife and fork to consume his breakfast without melting either of them, while I just enjoyed another meal that I hadn’t been responsible for making. Our waitress was a gem, always making sure to keep my coffee mug above half without hovering.
“What gets me about the whole thing?” I said while gesturing with a bit of bacon like it was a wand. “Is how the dang thing remained in that cave? It was obvious that whatever that sack monster was, it had been responsible for killing a lot of people. The damage to the halls, walls, and facility as a whole told me that. But it didn’t try to get out. It was down there for centuries, if the girls’ timelines are right.”
“Oh, that is simple,” Cerebaton said around a bite of ham. He chewed furiously for a long second before swallowing and taking a sip of his juice to clear his throat. “The doors that lead out were heavily reinforced with magic. While it could have cut through them eventually, it is akin to you trying to saw through an iron bar with a pocket knife. Sure, it is doable, but the time it takes would make it infeasible. So instead, it went into hibernation in the area it viewed as the most secure, waiting for something that could breach the seal, or more prey to come by. If it had tried more actively to escape, it would have starved before succeeding.”
“I guess that makes sense. It couldn’t just slather some of its blood on the door?” I suggested, buttering my last piece of toast while Cerebaton shook his head slowly.
“No. Well, yes it could. But the amount of blood needed to cut through those doors with the magic reinforcing them would be immense. While it was an entropic being, like a daemon, its touch was not nearly as corrosive as ours is. The older a daemon is, and the more matter they have consumed, the more efficient the exchange is. Have you ever wondered why it is that we don’t set off a massive explosion when Cariad or I dissolve one of your cups? Or even just breathe in the molecules of oxygen in the atmosphere?”
I paused at that statement, the triangle of toast halfway to my mouth.
Cerebaton had a point. It wasn’t something I’d considered before. I had just taken Cariad’s statement about how the negatively charged energy of a daemon’s body simply consumed the positively charged particles and left it at that.
Probably because you were too busy freaking out about antimatter people at the time, I thought wryly.
“You got me there. I’d thought about it. But when things didn’t blow up, I assumed there was a good reason and dropped it.”
Cerebaton nodded, daintily dipping another cube of ham into the pooling yolk from his eggs and eating that before continuing.
“The answer is complicated. Given how you continue to end up entwined with the DSR, beyond just receiving the occasional advice and support of the System, I will elaborate. The reason that you don’t see a massive explosion, flash of light, or other reaction when we consume matter native to your universe is because the reaction is really very inefficient. We don’t actually consume most of what we touch. The entropic reaction of our physical bodies touching matter in this universe just disperses the atomic bonds. It doesn’t actually split atoms, just scatters them. A good portion of the energy is released back into nature as harmless radiation, mana, or other forms of energy. A small amount is taken to fuel our bodies, with most of that actually being taken by the System itself.”
“And the stuff you swallow?” I couldn’t help but ask about that, given he had just finished taking another bite. Cerebaton chewed for a moment before explaining.
“It remains in our systems and is slowly broken down. That reaction is also inefficient, but the same general rules apply.”
“So the System is what keeps you from blowing up?” I asked, taking the long-delayed bite of my toast.
“Somewhat. It is one of those delicate balances that were put in place by the distant ancestors who forged the System and tied our people to its administration to help maintain the barriers between reality. Our scientists examine it even now. But there is enough, I believe your people call it ‘black box technology’, in place that it is difficult to learn anything appreciable. There is also a large portion of our people that simply view it as something that should not be understood, as the ancestors did not leave records of it behind for a reason.”
“Fair enough. There’s enough mysterious mystery out there that I can get behind that,” I mumbled around the last of my toast.
A buzz on my arm warned me that one of the girls had sent me a message. I quickly wiped my fingers on a napkin before pressing my index finger to first Kassandra’s tattoo, then Rieka’s.
It was my princess’s voice that echoed in my mind a moment later.
“Liam, I hate to do this on short notice to you, but Kass and I need to summon you for class. They sprung an inspection on us. Good news is that Shayla is interested, but won’t be able to actually commit till this weekend. If you can’t come today, just let me know. I can make up an excuse for the instructor. Love you!”
“Good news?” Cerebaton’s amused voice broke me out of my distraction, and I glanced up to find him smirking at me.
“The girls need me. Apparently, their class is requiring an inspection of their ‘summoned partners’ and I need to show up.”
“Ah, that is better than the last emergency summons you got. As long as no one is hurt that is. How long do you have?”
“Not long, I think. She said that it was short notice for class, so I figure that it will be here in a minute or two.” I pressed a finger to Rieka’s tattoo and sent her a quick reply.
“Just having breakfast with Cerebaton. I’m available to my princess whenever she needs me. See you soon, my Rieka.”
I smirked as I imagined her blushing reaction to the message when it arrived. Hopefully, she wasn’t in the middle of something or having to put on a stern face when it arrived.
Cerebaton glanced around before nodding towards the bathrooms. “When you receive the summon, just duck in there and go. I already said breakfast is on me. I’ll make excuses for you if Delores asks.”
“Thanks, Cerebaton. I’ll send you a message via the System if I can’t make it for training tonight. The way the girls described it, this should just be a short run for the class,” I said, even as the edges of my vision flashed and the message scrolled into view in glowing letters.
Rieka Coldeye and Kassandra Silverscale have sent a non-urgent request for your presence regarding your guardian contract.
Transit? View summoning?
“And there it is,” laughed Cerebaton, gesturing with his fork when he saw my eyes go unfocused. “Go on, Liam. Race to your ladies. I can see in your eyes that you’d rather spend time with them than me.”
“Not meant as an insult, but they are a bit more cuddly than you,” I replied with a wink, getting a snort and a nod of agreement from the big man.
After our earlier talk, he had relaxed a great deal more, like he did when we trained in the evenings. It felt more like having breakfast with a friend, rather than some business official.
Snatching the last of my bacon off my plate, I crammed it in my mouth as I got up and hurried to the bathroom. I wasn’t about to leave the best part of my meal behind.
Ducking into a stall, I pressed myself against the wall before tapping the ‘Transit’ option with my mind.
A moment later I was tugged through time and space to, as Cerebaton had put it a moment ago, race off to my ladies.
Comments
Aaron Henley
Well, hope there’s nobody in the stall on the return trip. *Nods at writer knowing what they are already planning*
MDMcVay
He's just being a protective Dad how nice
