Amity 5 CataclysmChapter 27 Prophecy
- 4 years ago
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“I still can’t believe my magic box opened for you?” I said, to Sable.
“I’m as surprised as you are, daddy. I just told the box we needed to charge the crystals to help you, and it opened for me,” he replied.
“You are probably the only person it would open for too, son,” I said. “My entity likes you for some obscure reason.”
Sable chuckled, “It loves you, dad. I think you frightened it when you collapsed. So it was willing to trust me so Trixi and I could help you.”
I looked around the table, “I believe I also need to thank a lot of other people for helping me.”
Foxi grinned at me, “Hey, big brother, it was no trouble at all. I had fun helping with the project.”
Rexel blushed profusely, “Yes, thank you Princess Foxi for your assistance.”
“No worries, big guy,” she said and winked at him, making him blush again.
Dazzle looked at me and grinned, “You should have heard the noises on this ship the last day and a half. A brothel madam would have been proud.”
Tom kissed Dazzle’s cheek, “And you were one of noisiest. I’ve never heard you scream like that before.”
“He wasn’t the only one screaming,” Reilly added as he looked at Sandy and took her hand in his.
“True, I was unaware my dear Heidi could also be so vocal,” Doctor Roberts added. His shy wife gave him a brilliant smile. I got the impression a few inhabitations were overcome in their marriage.
Andy added, “Jamie and I would have helped, but unfortunately I think my father’s items are either broken or don’t wish to come to me. I wasn’t a very good son.”
“Oh!” Sable said, he hopped down from his chair, and to our surprise, he ran out of the room.
“I’m sorry Andy. I don’t know what he did to those items, but they were very sick like him. It is very hard to be a good son when your father doesn’t love you. Children pick up things like that faster than adults do.”
Sable ran back in. He stopped beside me and handed me my satchel. “I dropped them your box, daddy. They fell out of your clothes when I was helping Trixi undress you.”
“How did you know I hadn’t put my satchel on?” I asked him.
He rolled his eyes, “I can see it, daddy, even if others can’t. I’m allowed to open it remember,” he reminded me.
I looked at Trixi. “Can you see it when I’m wearing it?” I asked her.
“No, and I’m allowed to open it, too,” she said to Sable.
“I think it’s part of his latent ability and the fact he is both closely related to you and very special to you, Bron,” Rexel said.
I looked at Sable, and I could see his bag. But I’d thought I could see it because I put the spell on it. Interesting, I decided. I opened my satchel and removed my magic box. I could see the ring and medallion lying at the bottom. They still didn’t look well, but they did look better.
“Well, well, well,” I muttered. One of the special boxes was glowing. I had thought they were to go to my spouses. But I knew that I didn’t want or need ten spouses. Maybe I would comply with my other spouses’ wishes and end up with six. That would be about my limit I’d decided. I got the feeling the boxes also knew this.
I enjoyed spending time with my spouses. I enjoyed spending time with my calves. My grandfather never had enough time for any of us. For most of the people on our property, he didn’t even remember who was a calf or a wife. He just screwed whoever took his fancy at that moment. I just couldn’t do that.
I grinned at Trixi, “Please don’t be surprised. I do not love Andy like I love you and he will not be our spouse.”
Her eyes widened, “Really, one does?”
I nodded, “I think I know why it has decided. I will discuss it with you later. I think you will agree with me and like what I tell you.”
I looked at Andy and said in a serious voice, “Do you promise to serve your people, all of your people to the best of your ability?”
“I will try very hard to be a better ruler than my father was, Bron. It is the least I can do. I do know that if I don’t, and you find out, you will spank my arse and cry while you do it,” he said.
“True,” I said, and I handed him the box after I removed it from mine.
He looked at the box and then at me, and then back to the box again, “What is this?” he asked with mild trepidation.
“Your mages box. The other items are damaged. They will take some time to recover. Also, I think you have different disciplines, so they don’t suit you. Just be aware, these items are less tolerant than your father’s items. It is also a full set.”
“You will not be a High Mage like me, but you will be powerful enough. You may need a second wife too,” I pulled out a bag of crystals and held them while I waited for him to open the box. I added a couple of little spells on them too.
He opened the box, and I looked to make sure it was full. I was pleased that it was, as I believed. “Lore, Nature and Energy. Lore is a good trait for a ruler to have. The other two are an interesting combination.”
“Energy often goes with Earth, but in your case, I think it will come in handy. Energy can assist Nature mages too. My Deputy-Mayor for Horn City had a similar ring, but Nature is his primary. He has a real thing for plants.”
“You may find you’re more a people and animal person than a plant type mage. You should probably heal even better than I do. Mixed with Lore you should find learning about people and what they need and think, even though you can’t read their thoughts or control them, are good traits for a King.”
Rexel nodded, “I agree, Andy had always been a compassionate and tolerant man. Nor is he the fool his father pretended. That’s why you were always sent you to sort out diplomatic problems, Andy.”
“I though he did it just to get me out of his sight,” Andy replied.
Rexel tutted, “My boy, how often did you come back without finding some middle ground in a dispute? Even your marriage to Jamie was a benefit to your father. It meant he could deal with Lord Sydney though you and don’t have to do it directly. I heard that he was planning to send you to see Queen Mary.”
I looked at Andy and grinned, “Yes, I do think you should go pay her visit. Tell her that you wish to meet Lord Owen Lots and his lovely family.”
Albi looked at me and frowned, and I grinned at him. He shook his head and looked at Andy, “Sammy is twenty-six, and she will knock your socks off and most likely rock your world.” He looked at me again, “How did you know she was a shifter?”
I rolled my eyes, “Silly question, Albi. Why did you think Ewan didn’t wish Owen to inherit?”
Trixi and Foxi were following the conversation, and I could see they were both thinking hard. Foxi’s eyes went wide at the same time as Trixi’s did. Trixi said, “Oh goodness, I do remember that bit of kerfuffle. His father is a shifter, isn’t he? Ewan hated shifters as much as King Tylor did.”
“Didn’t he try to disown his sister or something on the grounds it was an unnatural act or some such thing for her to have a son?” Foxi said.
“Yes, Mother had just come into power, and he tried to slip the case through the courts before she had adjusted. However, she already knew what he was up to so she stopped it. It was why she had no intention of him marrying me.”
“Even though she had to pretend that he had a chance as long as I agreed, she knew I wouldn’t. I could barely tolerate being in the same room as him. I think she was hoping I’d marry Albi or Henry as she at least got on with their families.”
It was Andy’s turn to frown. “I thought all your Shires were matriarchal, Trixi?”
“All except the Lots Shire. An ancestor had saved the life of a Queen and her daughter at the time. The Lots had a habit of having more sons than daughters. So she granted their wish for the oldest son to be the heir since they didn’t have any daughters,” she replied.
Foxi added, “It was such a shame Lord Ewan only had daughters. He had tried to get my mother to change the law back but she wouldn’t. Even if he married Trixi, it wouldn’t have mattered what she had since she was a shifter. It was his best solution.”
“Plus getting Davin Shire,” Trixi added.
“Wait, the unnatural act was having a son?” Vet Olsen asked.
“Yes,” I replied. “Some people consider a child born male when a parent is a shifter is unnatural. The thing was Ewan’s sister wasn’t the shifter. It is very rare that a shifter in male form will pass on the shifter gene to a non-shifter female. The gene is normally activated from the mother. Male born shifter can pass on the genes for his forms but not the gene to shift.”
“Owen wasn’t a shifter though. I remember him telling he wasn’t,” Foxi said.
“No, most shifters born as male can’t shift. Sable is a truly rare breed. However, some shifters have the mutated gene like Sable. They may not even be aware that they do. Matting with a non-shifter in their male form can activate the gene in the child especially if they are female like Samantha and Hugh.”
“I’ve read about it happening to some of my people’s ancestors. It’s nearly as rare as a male shifter. Phil Bay gave me a book and apparently, it had happened in his family’s History. Owen’s father took his spouse’s name. He was a Bay. A lot more of Phil’s calves prefer male form to female than in many of the other Herds.”
“Hugh is a female shifter?” Foxi asked with surprise.
“Yes, he just prefers male while Samantha prefers female. Owen may have the gene, but he was born male and said he can’t shift. His children will mostly not be shifters unless he mates with a shifter. It’s the luck of the draw sometimes. He wasn’t particularly worried about it,” I told them.
“Will the mutated gene affect any children I have with Samantha?” Andy asked.
“I can’t see why it would. She is a shifter and can change to bull and lanky like her sire. Hugh says he can’t change to his animal forms as easily as Samantha can but he has no trouble with gender in human form. He is probably closer to your age, but Samantha is the better match for yours and Jamie’s temperaments.”
“Well, it might be a while before I can get to Lime Island. My father has left a hell of a mess,” Andy said sadly.
“Well put that lot on. I’m sure the mages that have helped me will be more than happy to help teach you. I’ll drop this bag of crystals in your box, as they will also help you. You may wish to use some for improvements, but I’d leave some in reserve if you can.”
“If you know of any crystals growing here it would help you if you could collect some. I will send you some more if you can’t find any, once I get back to Horn City, I’ve not found them in Ochre City, they must still be buried under the citadel,” I told him.
Rexel responded, “I’ve never heard of anyone having found a source of those crystals here. We know what they do, but we don’t have spares lying around. If they are under the Palace, then they are probably buried like in your Ochre City. Not many underground areas are accessible.”
We watched as Andy put on the items and the delight when he connected to his entity was obvious. I felt Andy was at peace with himself, and he would make a very fine ruler for Weston for many years to come.
He already had a fine son for an heir, if he chooses to retire at some point.
Since I was now best mates with the King of Weston, I finally got my ship unloaded.
Captain Hail was delighted to get moving. I’d checked out Tomas’s ship Pity and repaired it. Dazzle was going to act as its Navigator for the time being. Pity was a little smaller than Mercy, and her hull was set-up very differently as she was designed for grain and produce and not livestock.
We had planned for her to travel empty but Tomas and I had found time to do some shopping. Weston may not have a lot of gold and silver, but they did mine copper, zinc and lead. Ochre had asked for these items if I could find them.
What silver they did have was extracted as part of the process of recovering the other metals. Lord Darren Nous of the most Northern town operated two small smelters near the Torrent River. We had heard on the dock that flooding had temporarily shut down his operation.
Tomas, Rose and I went to see him. We asked if he had any spare ore from the mine that hadn’t been processed. He had grumbled and said sort of. He showed us the barges and explained that the rock was partly processed at the mine to remove most of the tailings.
The lead and copper sulphides were sent to him to be further refined. He then extracted the different metals. He had access to a natural gas source that he used to heat his furnaces. Copper, Lead and zinc were the most common metals removed. They were hoping to find more silver, but they hadn’t so far.
When I asked for fifty tonnes of each and a price per estimated percentage of lead or copper in the ore, he happily supplied the last assessments of the ore. It was assessed by a mage who he believed was very reliable. The sulphates were sitting on the barges waiting for the clean-up of his plant to be completed.
He couldn’t accept another delivery until he unloaded the barges. The mine was bitching at him to return them. So if I wanted it, it was available. We took it. He got the barges re-floated and sent them the 15km downriver to the port so the crates could be loaded onto the ship.
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Some cloths were made from hemp and others from the cotton they grew here. The looser weaved produce bags were mostly made from hemp. Cotton was also used for clothing. I was fascinated, so we went for a look. I found the whole process very interesting.
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-- Philip - 2061 -- Ant and I looked at the Rih drive. There was no way we were going to get that baby going again. She was Fucked with a capital ‘F’. I was still surprised the computer hadn’t shut it down. It must have failed catastrophically to melt as it had. We went and checked the other three drives. The second drive on this end was fine, giving us some hope. I suggested we might need to do a spacewalk. Theoretical we could drop the cones off and replace them. It was also possible the...
Since we were at the new wharf, I asked Ian and Robert where they wanted their cold rooms. They already had the main road and a road built behind where the other longer wharf would go. The boys also planned another jetty at the other end of the beach. They had a lovely big mound of dirt and rocks that they had created when levelling off the road and clearing an area to start building back from the beach. The road crew were due back in a week to build them a couple more roads. They were to...
It was five years later before I claimed my sixth spouse. Inx’s family had moved to Ochre from Weston. She had been born in a tiny village that was north of Unna, in Orient. They still had problems with slavers, so her family moved. Her family had moved around a lot before settling in Weston for a while. When they heard people could go to the protected city of Ochre, they had applied. They did very well in Ochre finding the people there much more accepting of them being shifters. She became...
We spent two more weeks in town. When I’d asked Rose where she found the extra organisers that I had requested I had learnt some things that I didn’t know. Rose admitted to me that Garnet and Iren had fixed a little replicator that was designed to be portable. It only made items that could fit into a 40cm square by 50cm long area. It was designed to go to new mining sites to provide basics for the miners like toiletries, bedding, small tools, work clothes and safety items like boots,...
-- Storm -- I was a happy man. While my sons were still a mystery to be solved, I had at least gotten my daughters back. I can’t believe my amazing Crystal. She had done everything in her power to save her spirit friend even from himself. In my mind, that made her an exception wizard, and I wished I could give her a box she truly deserved. As for Sable, I took great delight in contacting Bron and telling him what his amazing son had done for my daughter and me. If she wants to marry him,...
The next two weeks were uneventful. We had good weather all the way. The ship went even faster with the clean hull. I think all the damn crystals they had embedded in the ship helped as well. The food was awesome. We had fresh produce every day. The cook, Ben, excelled himself. The ship normally had sixteen crew members, but since the Captain had a feeling he was going to have a bored crew on a ship that would rarely break down, we had left six of the crew with the girls. Half of his crew...
My first meeting was with the rent collectors. I’d spent some time the night before going through the two sets of books I’d retrieved from Enders office. I was appalled by what I had found. When I compared the amounts, I guessed they had ripped off my grandfather over the years but their bank accounts would not show much of the money, which would have been spent or hidden. Going by the decor of the apartment, I could see where a lot of Higgins’ money went. Ender was a different story....
Greta and I left the Bulls to their own devices. I had a couple of meetings I had promised to attend, and the last town forum was being run that afternoon. It was the candidates’ last chance to convince the locals to vote for them. Things had been going well for the first half hour then a few people started asking strange questions of the clerks’ that were running for election and Anna and Nat. They wanted to know things like what spells I had put on them and how often they had to fuck...
The coronation went well. Four of the five Lords attended. The fifth was the one was who caused a lot of speculation. He had sent word that he was indisposed. They had an illness affecting his people, so they didn’t even send a representative. Ryan told me Lord Mark Metal owned a valley that was further away than many of the others. He was also very old and being indisposed wasn’t something new to them. While the Lords operated the Shires in a rough semi-circle around Weston, Mark’s Shire,...
Once we were packed, we headed down the passageway. The man-made features lasted longer in this tunnel. Initially, it was rectangular. After about 20m, it changed abruptly. When I investigated, I pointed out to Mica that I believed it had once ended with a spelled door. When we had flashed our lights down this tunnel, it had appeared as a dead end. It was only as we got to the end did we realise it joined a cross passageway. The new path had a lower more rounded roof and was narrower. We...
Jay turned off his cornerstone and became visible. I noted the calculating look Casey sent his way. I wished her luck. I had a feeling Harry would soon disillusion her of her aspirations. I noted the way Jay looking over Mica and Casey. While it was a look of appreciation for two fine looking women, I knew as well he did that his heart was in Harry’s hands. He was perfectly happy that it was. I suspected my little effort the night before had affected all of those in camp. Harry and Jay...
I was amused to be seated at the head of the table. Greta was on my left and Cavil had the other end of the table. The Bellows may have been wondering what was going on, but I wasn’t in any hurry to tell them. Dick had been seated beside Greta and his sons interspaced with Cavil’s three main spouses at my request. I had invited only one of my grandfather’s people to be at the main table. I was interested as to why my sister Jose had been part of his entourage. She had been seated on my...
Lady Di came out to meet us when we got to her homestead. She seemed in a good mood and pleased to see Cora and me. She gave Bea a couple of long looks, but she didn’t behave inappropriately towards her or Cora. She told me that the reports from her other properties were coming back that the sickness had gone and the herds were improving in health. We went to look at the herd she had purchased from me, and I introduced Snort to Bea. We all laughed when he gave her a big sloppy kiss. He...
On the trip home, we had an interesting discussion. I wanted to go to Weston. Goran had fired up my interest. Sable was adamant that he would be coming too. Harry said if Sable went then he went. Rose said where I went she went. Rose amused me because she seemed to relish the idea of going to visit Silver’s City, so she didn’t even attempt to talk me out of the trip. I also suspected she had a thing for Silver. They had become best buddies when they met in Horn City. I did occasionally...
Cavil’s spouses were confused when he announced that he was no longer married to them. They were not sure why he was now saying they weren’t married, as they all believed that they were now my spouses. We confused them a little more when we explained the status-quo. They weren’t my spouses either. I patiently explained to them that since Cavil had proclaimed that he had stepped down as Bull the marriages were considered null-and-void. They all nodded to this. I then explained that I didn’t...
The big family meeting went better than I expected. While I had shelved a few projects until we got the site for the new village surveyed, we still had plenty of work to keep people busy. I think the fact I wasn’t going to evict anyone also helped. They all understood that I expected them to earn the wages they would be paid. The only real bank we had on the island was in Horn City. Other than that, there was just the money in a Bull’s coin chest. I wanted to introduce a system as I had...
Leigh handed the floor over to me. I laid out some of my plans to the other Bulls. I also looked at Leigh and Bob as I included plans that they could get involved in as my nearest neighbours. I could see them all looking at each other as their minds filled with ideas. I suggest that we retired to the lunch tables so we could mingle. This suggestion was unanimously agreed upon, and the Bulls headed out with a lot of excited chatter. I collared Cavil and got him to wait for me. I had to stop...
Bea wasn’t shy by any means. I stopped and checked what the bathing arrangements were and the landlady said she had two buckets of hot water ready if I wished to carry them up to my room. The tub was already in place as were towels and bathing requirements. I went to the kitchen with her, and she filled the buckets for me. I carefully took them up the back stairs. We were in a large room near the back stairs. I put the buckets down and swung the door to our room open. Picking up the...
To say the wizards stole the show would be putting it politely. While they had arrived in the more acceptable manner by coming to the front door and waiting to be announced, that was about all they did that was mundane. Olivia, Warren and Lillian were amused as they watched them enter the ballroom. To start with, they were the tallest people there. Sarah, Zarka and Payton were breathtaking. There was more than one man in the room who wanted to bury his head in their tits. The fact that that...
The party after the election was massive. It may sound a bit anti-climactic, but I was happy with the outcome of the election. The clerks that I was happy to see promoted were. The candidates I felt would be voted in were and the candidates I felt would take Clerk jobs did. Most importantly, Vaughn shoed it in. I wonder how many people noticed the ring on Vaughn’s finger. Yeah, he got two promotions. I had found him after I’d dealt with Dale and his spouses. I also collected Anna, Nat,...
I went home to get my girls. I was so happy to be home. The family greeted me with a lot of enthusiasm. I spent the day sorting out problems with different projects and finally got to spend some time with my girls. Bea and Cora were bloody horny that night. It had been nearly three weeks since I was home and the girls planned for me to make up for my absence. I was more than happy to indulge them. They intended to get more involved in the running of the property, and both had decided to...