The New Chimera

The faerie queen stood up from her bow, still smiling. “Do you like my gift?” She said, motioning to the transformed Jameson. “Some of my best work, if I do say so myself. I took some…inspiration from your previous work, I was figuring I’d save you the trouble of doing it yourself.”

“Change him back.” Lilith growled. “I don’t want this.” In the back of her mind she was vaguely aware of Kali holding a struggling Carmen down. “She needs to deal with this on her own.” Kali said sadly. “I’ll let you go when it looks like things are heating up, but for now going in guns blazing is just going to make things worse. We can’t protect her from everything.”

“Fine.” Carmen growled. “But I decide when that is.”

“What, you don’t like it?” Titania said, the innocent tone clashing with the sadistic look in her eyes. “You seemed so eager to do that other boy, I figured this would be no different.”

Lilith was beyond angry. “Don’t play innocent with me.” She said in a soft, cold voice. “If you were watching me, you would know that was a completely different circumstance. You’re just trying to get to me.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” She said nonchalantly, not seeming to care that she had been seen through. “Though not fully true. I was bored, and he happened to be there, it’s really not a big deal. No, let’s get to why I’m really here. You see–”

“No.” Lilith said, cutting her off. “You will turn him back. In fact, I’d been planning to come talk to you anyway, so this is a good opportunity. Your people have apparently been running rampant, changing defenseless humans for their own amusement.” She leveled a baleful gaze at Titania. “I can see why, if this is how their queen acts. I expect you to stop them and undo the damage they’ve done. This is non-negotiable.”

Titania rolled her eyes. “Or what?” She said, dropping her polite façade. “You may have been able to stop Winston, but you’re severely mistaken if you think I’ll be as easy to deal with.”

Before she did anything, Lilith set a Watch on Titania. It was clear that she’d be trouble in the future. She took a moment to scan Titania’s HP, then used some Worship to place a Geas on her with roughly twice her maximum health as a penalty, to make sure it couldn’t just be ignored.

Titania gasped, face turning red in fury. “Insolent whelp!” She spat, glaring at Lilith. “I suppose I’ll have to do this the hard way.”

The shadows in the room grew deeper, Titania seeming to loom over the room. The air chilled, frost forming on the window as the temperature plummeted. She pointed a thin, elegant finger at Lilith. “As queen of the faeries, I demand loyalty from my subject. KNEEL AND SWEAR FEALTY.”

Lilith knelt, her body screaming at her to obey this woman’s orders. She placed a palm on the ground and looked up at Titania with a pained expression.

“No!” Jameson yelled. Lilith hadn’t noticed him coming back to his senses. The poor guy was in way over his head, she’d have to treat him to something when this was over.

She raised her hand and shot Titania in the forehead, the gun she had finished transmuting her palm into doing its work. Titania stumbled backwards, wound already sealing up…and fell into the waiting arms of Carmen.

Carmen tossed her to the ground furiously, placing a foot over her prone form. “Nice try.” She snarled. “That would probably have worked on any of the other Perfect Chimeras, but you’re a little out of your weight class. Consider yourself lucky it was Lilith here, and not me. Since she’s already done her bit, I’ll let you off with just this.”

Ignoring Lilith’s mental protests, Carmen placed another Geas on Titania.

She lifted her foot and glared at Titania. “I’m waiting.”

Titania grit her teeth but got to her knees. “I, Titania, queen of the faeries, hereby swear loyalty to Lilith, the High Arbiter, for as long as we both live.” There was a spark of magic, and a dialogue box popped up informing Lilith of all she had gained from this, but she ignored it.

Carmen smiled. “Good.” She immediately annulled the bond that had been created, the magical whiplash knocking Titania down onto her palms, and Carmen crouched down so she was barely above Titania’s face.

“Lilith wouldn’t allow it for longer than that,” she whispered, “but I wanted to hear you say it anyway. I will give you one warning, don’t mess with my family or my friends. I’ll know the instant you do, and when that happens, I will hunt you down and gut you like a fish.

“And I’m not making this a Geas because I don’t want to ruin the joy of the hunt, something I’m sure you’re well acquainted with. Now, fix your mess and get out of my sight. I won’t be this merciful next time.”

Tears of humiliation streaming down her face, Titania waved her hand, and Jameson began to shift, returning to his old shape. Once the process was done, Titania spit on the ground in front of Lilith before giving them both one last glare. “I won’t forget this.” She hissed. “Watch your backs.” And with that she vanished, leaving the three alone.

Carmen pulled Jameson into a hug. “Sorry you had to see that.” She said. “Kali insisted that Lilith should deal with it alone until things got violent. I would have preferred to come in and put her in her place the moment I realized what was happening, but…” She trailed off, then shook her head. “I don’t think she’ll come after you, Jameson, but if you want, I can relocate you and your family to somewhere she won’t be able to find you.”

“I…think we’ll be fine.” Jameson replied. “Moving’s the last thing we need right now, what with all that’s been going on. We’re stressed enough as is. Just keep an eye on us, alright?”

Carmen nodded. “I’ll make sure one of us drops by every week.” She released the hug and looked over the two, making sure they were OK. “Alright, I gotta get back to my date. Think about if you want me to come with Lilith and Kali on your double date, and just send us a text if you need anything. Our number’s still the same.” She smiled weakly before quickly drawing a transport array using multiple appendages and vanishing.

Lilith sat down hard on the floor, rubbing her temple. “I feel like there are going to be times when I really hate my job.” She groaned. “I feel like no one is ever going to want to just talk.”

Jameson sat down next to her, throwing an arm around her shoulder. “Hey man, I’m not going to even try and pretend I understand what you’re going through, but I’m ready to listen if you need to talk. So, c’mon, tell me about your childhood.”

Lilith smiled. “You were there for it, doofus. And I should be asking you that question. So…uh, how are you doing after that?”

He withdrew his arm and playfully punched her shoulder. “Hey, it had to be said. I don’t make the rules, I just follow them. And I’m fine. I was as good as unconscious for most of it, and there was a bit of a scare when she made you kneel, but then it was immediately fixed, so it’s whatever. Besides, between the two of us you’ve always been the sensitive one, so seeing you have to do something like that got me worried.”

Lilith rolled her eyes. “Don’t be. Sure, I was griping, but I don’t actually want to change what I’m doing. It’s just good to say it, you know? Anyway, what can I do to help you out right now? Do you have any concerns or anything?”

Jameson hesitated, thinking that over for a moment. “Well, about those portals you said you were going to open…nothing’s going to…come through, right?”

“No, no monsters or anything will come through those. It’s more an issue of wildlife over here getting more dangerous as time goes on, though. Still, you should have at least a few years before anything really threatening to even a level one starts showing up with any sort of regularity. By that time everyone should be more than capable of defending themselves, at least in terms of raw stats. Don’t worry, if things go bad, I’ll take care of it. I can always work on getting shelters ready for people to evacuate into or something. It really shouldn’t come to that, though.”

“That’s all, really. Just as long as nothing’s going to come and eat me in my sleep.”

“Nah, don’t even worry about that. Things shouldn’t be able to break into houses of this quality for a long time.” She stood up, stretching as she did. “Speaking of, let’s finish off this house. I still have to hit my place and Judy’s place by the end of the day, so I can’t afford to laze around forever.”

The rest of the house cleaning was awkward. Titania’s visit had ruined the atmosphere, and Lilith felt like she was walking on eggshells. She tried a couple more times to get Jameson to open up about what just happened, but each time he firmly rebuffed her.

So, she turned her attention to the slew of messages she had received after Carmen forced Titania into submission.

She skimmed over the uninteresting Skills. They were mostly bonuses to certain types of spells, stat bonuses, or generally just not useful to her at the moment. There were, however, a couple of real gems in there.

They appeared to be from the Faerie Queen Racial Class, and Lilith could already see them coming in handy. The glamour could fool any form of sensor? Did that mean it included things like DNA tests? Well, she probably couldn’t get enough knowledge of something to reliably imitate its DNA, so that was a moot point. Probably. Still…she had to try something.

“Jameson?” She asked, wincing at how strange her voice sounded. “How do I look?”

He spun around, eyes wide. “Lucas?!” He exclaimed. “How did you…I mean, you look and sound just like you used to. Why didn’t you do this while you were walking around?”

“A few reasons. One, I couldn’t. I just…well, for lack of a better term stole that Skill from Titania. I get a permanent copy of all my subordinate’s Skills, and she was briefly my subordinate. Two, I was under a spell anyway. Only people like you who know me really well would have recognized me anyway. And three…it feels weird. I’m used to this by now, and suddenly having a different voice is strange. It doesn’t even sound like normal to me, anyway. It’s like I’m listening to a recording of myself. Plus, I feel when things touch the glamour.” She said, touching her chest to emphasize her point, “It feels really weird to be able to touch somewhere and feel both nothing and something at the same time. I would not recommend it.”

She dropped the glamour, breathing a sigh of relief as the weird double-sensation vanished. “It’s just not comfortable. Not something I would want to keep up for a long period of time.”

Jameson got that mischievous expression again. “But…it’s fine for a little bit?”

I also feel significantly more comfortable using it than you do. Carmen chimed in. Probably has to do with my personality?

“Yeah, a little bit’s fine. Carmen says she’s pretty comfortable with it, so whatever you’re planning would probably be better done with her, rather than me.”

“It works.” He grinned wolfishly. “It’s about the date. I’ve got an idea.”

Once the house was empty Lilith said her goodbyes to Jameson and emptied the other two houses. Once those were empty, she was finally able to get back to her home.

When the transfer finished, she found herself tackled to the ground, her head forced onto Kali’s lap. “Sorry.” Kali whispered, stroking her hair. “It was best to talk things out first. I know that was awful, but I can’t protect you from everything.”

Siph dusted herself off and nodded in satisfaction, then left the room. “Enjoy yourselves!”

Kali gave Lilith a weak smile. “How can I make it up to you?”

Lilith shifted slightly. “No, it’s…fine. I get it. But if you insist…could we move this to the couch or the bed or something? It’ll be more comfortable there.”

The ground itself moved, gently depositing the two on their bed. “There. Anything else?”

Lilith closed her eyes. She felt so…at ease there, almost like she had just returned home after a long absence. “Let’s just…stay like this a while.”

“Of course.”

Fighterman481

This one is mostly just dialogue changes to account for Darragh's absence and the new situation. Again, though, I'm significantly happier with how it turned out in the end. 

I've got a bit more to say but it's...probably best I don't, so...as always, thanks for reading!