Chapter 15

The sun was well up when I awoke the next morning. I was indeed loved. Gretchen was still in my arms, and Clare and Shannon had moved up against me. Clare was pressed against my back, and Shannon was pressed up against her little blond friend.

I lay there for a time thinking about what had happened last night. It had indeed been an exceptional night, but I was worried. I had three women in love with me. Somewhere along the line, I had already decided to marry two of them. This, of course, was not unusual in our family, and I had plenty of precedent for it.

But what about the third one? The one who was already carrying my Daughters? Was I ready for something like that? Would she even consider something like that?

On top of all of that, what would Grandfather Michael say, not to mention my own Parents and my other Grandparents? This could be sooo much trouble. Was I ready for that? Could I even keep all three of them happy and / or satisfied?

Then there was the problem of children. Gretchen already had two growing in her. Clare was definitely ready to get pregnant at the drop of a hat, or a spell, and Shannon, Miss Reasonable, was equally ready to join her.

Oh lord, I had that same picture of me surrounded by children - lots of children, but now there were more of them, and they had more than three hair colors. Oh, I was so screwed! I would never be able to keep up with them all, not to mention, how was I going to afford even one wife let alone THREE? Plus the gangs of children I worried that they would have.

In passing, I wondered if my Father or Grandfather had ever had these kinds of problems. No, I didn't think so. Dad only had one wife, and Grandfather Mark only had two. My Uncles only had two each. Why the hell was I even considering three? I finally decided that I needed to talk to someone when I got home. Maybe Grandfather Mark. He at least wouldn't jump down my throat.

While I had been thinking, my three women woke up. They sat up and stretched. What a fantastic sight! All three of them were as naked as jaybirds. There were three cute faces that looked at me, and three lovely pairs of breasts. I was hard in an instant.

"Oh no you don't!" Shannon said on seeing my hard-on. "We need to get up, wash up, and have some breakfast. Maybe then you can think about molesting us."

"You can molest me now," Clare said sexily with a grin. "Let the others go wash up, and I'll stay here with you."

"Oh no you won't, Clare!" Shannon said in a determined voice. "We three need to wash up. Michael can stay here in the bed until we are finished."

"You're no fun at all sometimes, Shannon," Clare told her friend, as the three of them got out of bed, and padded naked into the bathing room to wash up. A short time later, I heard a scream from the bathing room, and thought it came from Gretchen. I hurriedly got out of bed. When I got there, Gretchen was staring at Shannon in disbelief.

"How did you do that?" she was asking in a shocked tone of voice.

"Do what?" I asked on entering.

"The water is hot!" Gretchen said in amazement.

"Yes. I used a spell to heat the water," Shannon told her.

"But only the strongest Wizards can do that!" Gretchen said in amazement.

"Michael does it, and I can do it. Patrick and my Sister Sheena can do it. It isn't that big a thing," Shannon told her brushing the event off.

"What about Clare and her Sister?" Gretchen asked.

"We're different. We use different Magic," Clare told her with a smile.

"Surely, you can do magic," I said to Gretchen. "You have a fair amount of Talent."

"No! I don't know much Magic. I'm not in the Magic Guild, and I'm not allowed to use Magic," Gretchen told us.

"I'll have to speak to Grandfather about that. It's such a waste of Talent, and they need all that they can find," I told her.

The women all washed up, and it was a grand sight to watch, I have to tell you. They were soon finished, and I got washed up after them. When I came out of the bathing room they were all half dressed.

"Are you finished with the water?" Clare asked on seeing me.

"Yes. I'm finished," I told her, and she closed her eyes and then chanted a mantra. I felt her Magic working, but again couldn't tell what she was doing. I looked at her questioningly.

"I sent the dirty water to the fields," she said with a little giggle. Gretchen was again surprised when she heard this, and went to the bathing room to look.

"You also must be a great Wizard to be able do that, Clare," she told the little blond.

"I'm not a Wizard, Gretchen. I'm an Earth Mage," Clare said with a smile pointing to the vines on her arms.

"But ... but they are even more rare!!" Gretchen said in shock. "You are all so much more powerful than any of us. It makes me feel out of place," she finished.

"Don't feel bad, Gretchen. You have a fine Talent, and just need to learn some Magic. You will be able to do many things then," Clare assured the brunet with a hug.

Breakfast arrived shortly after that along with Pat and his three women. We had all finished dressing by then. Following a leisurely breakfast, Pat and I went to find our Uncles, while the women discussed clothes, hair styles, and would you believe - sex.

"How was your night?" I asked Pat along the way.

"I think I'm in deep shit!" Pat answered. "I think all three of them are in love with me. I'm sure that Sheena and Cathleen are, and I think Petra is also. What am I going to do with three wives?" he asked in a very seriously worried voice, and no smile what-so-ever.

"No shit!" I said. "Welcome to the club. I was worrying about that this morning too. All I could see was me and an endless line of children with more than three hair colors."

"Yes, I know what you mean. What do we do about it?" he asked.

"I don't have a clue, Brother," I answered, and didn't. We soon arrived at the apartment shared by our Uncles. It was very spacious and finely appointed. Of course they lived here all of the time, where as we were just visiting.

"Good morning! Are you ready to talk about spells?" I asked them, as they rose to greet us on entering.

"We certainly are," Seamus answered. "But first we have a question."

"Okay. What is it?" Pat asked.

"Do you know anything about a book that disappears when you try to look at it?" Sean asked.

"Ah oh! Where did you see this book?" I asked them with a worrisome feeling.

"We both saw it when we got up this morning in our separate rooms. When we went to look at it, it vanished," Seamus told us in a rather perturbed voice. Pat and I just looked at each other.

"You just described the 'Book of Dreams'," I told them.

"Book - appear," Pat said, and made a sign in the air. The 'Book of Dreams' appeared in his hand.

"Is this the book?" Pat asked before I could.

"It certainly looks like it from the brief look that we got at it before it vanished," Sean told us.

"So the 'Book' was here last night. What did it teach you?" I asked both of them.

"It didn't... !!" Seamus started, and then got the strangest look on his face. "I guess it did!!" he continued in surprise. "I seem to know a new transfer spell," he finished. Sean had the same look on his face now also.

"So do I!" he added in shocked surprise.

"Does it go like this?" I asked and then chanted the spell and made the glyph for it in the air, but didn't push any Magic in to it. Instead I held the Magic in my other hand ready to use. I stopped right there, and gazed at Pat in shock.

"Where did I learn that?" I asked in amazement.

"Learn what?" both Uncles asked me, confused.

"Don't you mean where did WE learn that?" Pat asked, apparently just as surprised as I was at the new way to control when Magic took effect by adding it to a glyph that we had already created rather than immediately on its creation.

"It would appear that the 'Book of Dreams' was very busy last night," I told my Uncles.

"Since you two have enough Talent, did the 'Book' teach you the spell for the Defensive Shell also?" Pat asked.

"Defensive... !!" Sean asked before he stopped in shock. "Yes, it appears that it did," he said when he had recovered.

"Maybe you should practice it some while we are here to help you," I suggested.

"Now!?" Seamus asked.

"Sure, but we need to be outside when you do it," Pat told them.

"Well, Okay!" Sean agreed, and Pat and I immediately transferred all of us out to the court yard, much to our Uncles shock and surprise.

"Go ahead, sit on the ground, and cast the spell for a small defensive shell," I told them. Our Uncles looked around at the mud and water covering the ground in the court yard with distaste.

"Here!" Pat said as he materialized a couple of thick straw mats that had been in the stable. Our Uncles sat on them, but looked confused for a few seconds before joining hands, and starting the spell and its glyph. A small defensive shell, about ten feet in diameter, appeared in the court yard.

"Okay!" I told them. "Now expand it to cover the Palace complex," I added. They both looked at me in shock.

"It won't do much good that small. Even our Parents could create one to cover forty acres. Surely you two can create one to cover this Palace," Pat told them.

"Breathe deeply," I instructed them. "Gather the Magic force around you, recite the enlargement spell and push the Magic into it," I instructed them. They tried, but their first attempt only enlarged it enough to cover half of the Palace.

"Not too bad for a first try!" Pat told them. "You need to gather more Magic force before you begin. Can you feel it gathering?" he asked.

"Yes, we could feel it, but it feels strange," Seamus told us. "We thought that we had enough."

"Gather more Magic force, and let it accumulate longer before you expand the shell again," I told them. They sat there for a longer time to accumulate the Magic before trying again. This time the shell expanded enough to cover the entire Palace complex. Our Uncles were sweating when they finished even though it was very cool out.

"Now you need to weave the wards into the shell to make it even stronger. What ward spells do you know?" Pat asked. They told us, but none of their wards were all that powerful at least compared to ours.

"Here are the wards that our Parents used. The four of them would each cast one of the wards, so they would be finished swiftly. The two of you together should be able to cast the four of them one at a time. It will take you longer, but you will get better with practice," I told them. Pat and I then began teaching them our Parents' wards. It took a while, but eventually they had all four wards woven into the defensive shell.

"Now, here are our wards!" I told them, and Pat and I wove our wards into the shell also. We were finished quickly.

"Can you sense the difference between the two sets of wards?" Pat asked once we had finished. Both men had a look of concentration on their faces, as they did their best to check all of the wards.

"Ours are a bit spongy if you know what I mean?" Seamus said in surprise.

"While yours are like iron plates or rock walls," Sean added in surprise.

"That's because they take a lot more Talent to construct, but yours will withstand anything that can be thrown against them here just as they did for our Parents," I told them as they rose from the mats which had soaked through where they had been sitting. Pat and I canceled all of the wards and the defensive shell before we all returned to our Uncles' apartment.

"You should practice those spells until they are second nature," I told them once back inside. "But not here at the Palace. Find a nice large field somewhere and practice there. That way no one will be inconvenienced or disappear."

"We were wondering about that," our Uncles said.

"We were keeping an eye on things for you," Pat assured them.

"One other thing," I mentioned while we had their attention. "Apparently none of these young girls working here are being trained in Magic. They all have some degree of Talent and should learn to use it."

"They aren't part of the Magic Guild, or its training program," Seamus told us.

"We heard that from them, but you need people with the Talent. That's why we had sex with a number of them, yet you aren't utilizing them. Start your own chapter of the Guild here if necessary, and have them start learning. There are certainly enough Wizards here for them to be able to contribute a bit of time each week to teach Magic," Pat told them.

"We had never thought of that!" Seamus said with a surprised look on his face.

"We'll see what we can do. Father can certainly convince the Guild to allow it," Sean told us.