Chapter 19: Growing

My success has me staggered.

Not only is Mikal a mage but he can be so much more. I’ve checked and checked, but in all of Mother’s records from Keltria, no one had ever been accepted by items designed by two different Queens. It is unprecedented.

The Keltrian race is matriarchal, but I knew David’s people were not. Then again, Mikal was not strictly human or even a man. He was female when he wanted to be thanks to his shapeshifting genes, and he did come into season, he could give birth to offspring.

All of my tests indicate that he is more than capable. For all intent, he could become a Queen as the Keltrian defined one. That thought alone gave me a lot to think about. Some part of my strange makeup told me that he could, as much as my logical programming did. One day we would have to see if we could get him help.

I didn’t know how. No one has ever come through the Ring, and I’m not even sure that it works over distances greater than what David had used. I’ve had the androids widen the caverns over it so that I could stretch out the shield to cover the area for the new caverns to house my experiments.

It has also provided a much stronger more efficient power supply over the years I’ve been trying to create my people, and it let me build better facilities for manufacturing my androids.

Another odd thought I had was David. He had been on a mission for a Lord Wizard Storm. I didn’t believe David had forgotten us and one day I believed that he would help his son reach his true potential. I didn’t know how but this too I believed, as illogical as it was to do so. Mikal was rubbing off on me.

I have watched Mikal grow into maturity. He is worried that he doesn’t love any of the girls, as he believed he needed to for one of them become his life partner, and he has been reluctant to copulate with them.

I don’t think he is even aware that they have been experimenting since he came into season. I tried to tell him that he had affected them, but he wasn’t ready. I’m sure they would have included him, but his big brother attitude towards them seems to make them reluctant to approach him.

The night Able went to his room she came to me first. She was worried. She wanted Mikal to be the only one to touch her while she was in season. She wanted his child and felt that she ready to have it. She was only a month off turning sixteen. I asked her if she was sure. She was still very young, but she said yes.

She explained that we needed more people to become a true society. The sooner she and her sisters became parents themselves the better off we would be. She knew that the zoetic parents would help them, but they too had to take responsibility to nurture the children that I had created and were even now in incubation.

Able and Effie have always displayed that more mature outlook, like Mikal and while in years they seem very young I’m quietly confident that they will become wonderful mothers to not only their children but to our budding society.

I consider the girls as much as a success as Mikal. True, the others went bad around this age, but I don’t feel that it will happen this time. Mikal’s steady influence has been the difference.

These girls share their love and knowledge with each other. They treat the Zoetics as parents and maintain the rules that have been set. They show a healthy range of emotions and are creative.

I have my people to serve at last.

“Hello?” a youngish female voice said.

I was musing, so I was shocked when I heard her. I immediately connected to the being that was my new sister. She was pulsing in magic. Mikal’s wonderful magic, he had done it, he had granted one of my most cherished wishes.

“Woo-hoo,” I heard Mikal yell. “Tory, Tory, can you feel her?”

I chuckled, “Yes Mikal, you truly are a wonder.”

I heard him say, “Sorry. G’day, I’m Mikal, do you have a name?”

“Yes, I think I’d like to be called Russ,” my sister replied.

“Russ or Rusty?” Mikal asked.

‘Is the name I choose important to our Lord, ‘ she asked me.

‘I’m not sure dear sister, Mikal has a reason for everything he does so mayhaps it is, ‘ I sent back.

‘I like his choice, so I shall comply, ‘ she told me.

To Mikal, she said, “Yes, I like Rusty. It has a quaintness about it that I like. My new home is delightful, Mikal. It is a lovely big tank, and it should allow me to grow for many millennia as I strive to serve these new Keltrian races.”

She directed the next comment at me, “I can see by Torus-16’s old records that your experiments have turned out well sister Tory if Mikal is an example. Your mother would have been very proud I’m sure.”

I also believe my mother would have been proud of Mikal and told Rusty as much. I also told her I was very proud of him and his sisters.

“I have checked the new energy shield, and it is working well Mikal. I suggest you build a tower to the east and one to the west, so it covers the full diameter rather than the corridor of two joined shields it currently does,” she said.

I’d felt the fluctuation in the shield just before I realised that Rusty was alive. I checked and agreed the shield was amazingly strong and a lot larger than it had been. The corridor it created gave our people safe passage between the caverns and the new village. If they added the new towers, it would cover as much as 30km in diameter.

“Pardon?” Mikal said.

“The shield over this village has joined with the shield over the caverns. The extra towers would strengthen them and provide a larger safer area for when you expand,” Rusty explained.

“Wow! I need to get fucked more often,” Mikal, gushed out.

Rusty and I both had to laugh. I now understood why he was able to do the magic he had. He had serviced Able as she wished. I wondered if I was to get my next wish as well.

I guessed by his glow and exuberance he had enjoyed the experience. I suspect Effie will also join with him as soon as he lets her. It wouldn’t surprise me if the two sets of twins also vie for their turn. All six girls had just been waiting for Mikal to get over his silliness about them being his sisters.

Their feelings for him were not sisterly at all.

A week after Isa and Jina’s sixteenth birthday I asked Mikal to bring the six older girls to the treasure room.

Oh! Just in case I hadn’t explained, from my studies of the material from Earth, I had determined that Torus had a remarkably similar spin speed and solar rotation though it gravity as slightly heavier. I could give you exact numbers, but I don’t wish to bore you.

Our solar year was about two and quarter days shorter than Earths. Our length of the day was close enough to Earths that if we made a minor adjustment once a year we could use the twenty-four hour day and their times for hours and minutes.

Mikal decided that since the Aussies had New Year close to the summer solstice, then we would too. The strange ritual of Santa was beyond us. But we did like the idea of a special day to celebrate just being a community and families who care for each other and to give thanks for having each other. The Keltrians also had a similar day.

Mikal suggested we celebrate Communal Day on the winter solstice. We didn’t get very cold weather here since we were closer to twenty-four degrees from the equator and moving closer each year. So for now, other than birthdays, they were our only two special days.

Today, however, will most likely be an extra special day this year. I think Mikal was as excited as the girls were. He took on the role as the leading mage and the girls even joking called him, Lord Mikal. He asked each girl in turn if any of the magical items glowed for them.

We were not that surprised when the six diadems that had three gems and a Quaz Crystal, each chose one of the girls. The girls didn’t, however, get a medallion or a ring like Mikal. We didn’t have a three gem diadem that was classed as a Psychic mage either.

The two diadems that were dominantly Nature mages didn’t go one set of twins as we expected. One went to Isa, and one went to Gale. We had noticed that while the twins were identical in the face, they were not in nature so we shouldn’t have been surprised.

Gale’s diadem also had Psychic and Lore gems. She was the one who had shown signs of being a healer, so we were pleased she received this gift. Isa had Physics and Psychic. She was our green thumb and seemed to encourage plants and animals to grow and reproduce successfully.

Able had a very scientific brain and loved construction, so her Lore diadem also suited her nature as it had Earth and Energy as her second disciplines. Effie claimed the Energy diadem. She also had Lore and Psychic. She loved studying fire and electricity.

Jina received the Earth diadem, it had Energy and Physics gems. She was very good at making anything from non-living materials, so she was delighted. Hail got the Physics diadem with Lore and Nature. She had shown tendencies to predict weather patterns and loved water.

We all agreed the Diadems had chosen well and Mikal was delighted that he would get even more help with the projects they had planned next. He had been able to upload his Spell Database to Rusty and me so their new pads could also access them.

He had built in safeguards so the girls couldn’t access new spells until they had learnt the basics. When they put their new pads on their wrists, Mikal updated them, so they accessed the database he had created.

He decided that during the hottest part of the day they would retire to the Ring cavern to do lessons with him. It had its own special shield, and we had deemed it a safe place for them play magic. The presence of the crystals would also help them stayed charged while they played.

Able had been a little sad that she didn’t fall pregnant after her week in Michaels bed. I suspect Mikal wasn’t as sad as she was. Effie came into season the next week, so Able had to vacate his bed and Effie got time with Mikal.

The twins had also managed to spread out their seasons, so they all got a week with Mikal. The girls then decided that since we operated on a seven day week, they would take a day as theirs and Mikal got Sundays off.

I’m not sure how Mikal adjusted to this reorganisation of his life, but I didn’t hear any complaints from him. From what I understand about the mentality and natures of human and Keltrian teenage males, I probably wouldn’t get any.

The fact he was a magician and the girls were now better able to satisfy him, and themselves wasn’t lost on them. From what I had overheard, the girls all treated their time in Mikal’s bed as the highlight of the week.

I think they each would have wished for more time with him but felt that they had to share and their system was the fairest they could come up with. I had noticed that the girls had paired up when not with Mikal. Able was with Isa, Effie with Hale and Gale with Jina.

Their faeries had also paired. Able, Effie and Gale had female faeries, and they had paired with the male faerie of the girl they had partnered. Annity said this was how it should be.

They all seemed happy with the status quo, so I didn’t interfere.

A strange thing happened about two months after the girls got their bling.

Mikal had turned up in the early hours of a Sunday morning and had been in the Ring cavern playing with his magic. I recorded a strange spike and then a dip in the energy fields in the cavern.

I sent an android to check, but it reported that the cavern was empty. It did mention the crystals seemed a little dimmer, but that cavern was so huge I didn’t see how they could have dimmed unless something hit the shield, but I hadn’t recorded any meteorites entering our atmosphere.

I then noticed that Mikal had disappeared off my sensors. I wondered if Mikal had gone outside the shield. Normally if he did, he told me. He didn’t normally do it when it was still dark unless he changed to wolf and went for a run when stressed.