Chapter 4

The mission staff finally assembled in the Loegrian cluster of Earths, though not on Loegria itself, which, other than a small permitted colony on the other side of the cluster stream, was deserted of any of the works of mankind or others. Mostly the encampment was a meet and greet get together to enable any issues to be sorted out ahead of time, rather than have something explode in our face in the Orc cluster.

For me it was an opportunity to meet up with friends that I had not seen, for years in some cases, particularly the wolves and Nosferatu.

“It is good to see you again, friend John,” I was greeted joyfully by Nell.

“You too, friend Nell. How is life as the Varney of the Carpe Noctum Confederation?” I replied as we hugged as I carefully filtered out the mild dose of pheromones the Nosferatu hunted their prey by; not that they killed people, that’s just a myth. They needed about a pint of blood a day which was why we have a massive frozen blood-bank with us, not that I was personally averse to the personal touch (without the sex bit, naturally).

“It is both easier and harder, there is less work, but the disciplining of the leadership is far harder as so many will not change their ways to prevent the Council regularly culling them, despite the example of the Juwes Clan.”

“Richard, as the Țepeș Ambrogio, knows he can call upon the Council for support if he feels his authority is being ignored ... or challenged.”

“He does, but he will probably only use it as a last resort, not a first strike,” Nell nodded. “He has a great deal of support from the Kyresi (guardians) of the various clans, though not, as yet, the Țepeșci.”

“Reform is best done carefully,” I agreed.

“With the Carpe Noctum Confederation, definitely.”

“You have studied what we know of the Orcs?”

“Yes, a most formidable foe, both physically and in numbers.”

“Agreed. The job of your people will be to detect them so we can withdraw to safety, not engage them.”

“This we know, John. But, I fear that they may surprise us.”

“You aren’t the only one, Nell,” I replied sombrely as Marja and Adok, the new Alpha’s of the Zielona Gora Lycana, approached.

“My friends,” I greeted them with a formal respectful bow.

“It’s good to see you again too, John,” Adok greeted me with a hand clasp, whilst I got a hug off Marja.

“How is Jacob?”

“Enjoying retirement with the Lycana Belikovna as they establish a new territory in the far north of Theria (the wolf world).”

“That collaboration came out of the blue, but good on your father. Leonova is a hell of a catch,” I chuckled.

“Whilst many of the Belikovna are man-haters, all respect Jacob and are proud that he and Leonova are mates,” Marja added.

“I take it the hate only goes towards those who abused them?”

“Very much so, John. None of them hate you ... or any of the males they fought alongside. Respect was earned and reciprocated.”

“Any children?”

“Not as far as we know,” Adok replied. “But they’ve been gone almost five months now, so it’s possible some are on the way.”

“Roxanne went over your remit again?”

“Yes, John. Scouting only, we are not to engage unless it’s to aid our escape.” Marja replied and Adok frowned slightly.

“Adok my friend, trust me, these are not easy prey.”

“I know, John, it just goes a bit against the grain. That said, I’m not going to try and get around it. Galadriel’s physiology report was very thorough and your average Orc grunt could snap me in half if I got careless or caught out.”

“Yes, even the Mazdani are being cautious about confronting them. They’re fast and incredibly strong, if somewhat intellectually challenged.”

“You got that right. Still, their leaders are brighter and their higher leadership frighteningly bright as well as physically daunting.”

“They can also play the numbers game too.”

Both of the wolves nodded, knowing that the Orcs were capable of throwing millions if not billions of their lower orders at a problem until it was brought down. Whilst it was suspected they had high-tech weapons, their first solution was always to go in with their numbers and overwhelm an opponent, or so we supposed from the limited information we had.

“We’ll be careful, John.” Marja nodded.

I then walked with Nell over to where the Mazdani were settled in as Marja and Adok went over to see their friend Dan, a Kyresi of the Juwes Nosferatu clan.

“Tu’tar,” I greeted my friend and ex-bodyguard.

“It is good to see you again, John,” he replied with the forearm to the chest gesture that conveyed honour and respect to the person being greeted ... as well as giving off a loud booming sound.

“Hope you don’t do that in the field,” I chuckled.

“It would be somewhat foolish, yes,” he replied with his deep rumbling laugh.

“Just make sure your people can retreat if necessary, my friend.”

“I will. We are not here to die and going toe to toe with the Orcs is a sure way to do that.”

We were joined by Elpida the leader of the Gorgon contingent who, as ever, was delighted to see me. Elpida, is my unofficial sixth wife as well as the mother of my eldest child, a beautiful young lady Gorgon called Helena. Not that I had any idea of what was to happen when I assisted with Morgana in the circumstances of an assault on Elpida by members of the Coalition. They had made an attempt to wrest the leadership of the Gorgon community away from Elpida’s family by interfering with her ‘breeding’ cycle by corrupting the genetic material she used to create a child. Morgana had substituted my sperm for the corrupt version and corrected a serious issue which had gained the trust of the Gorgons and brought them back into the mainstream of the Council’s relationships with the various demi-human communities.

However, as Elpida had no knowledge of our coupling due to a treatment the Gorgons used to remove memories (usually only the face to prevent a tie forming) and she desperately wanted the memory of a coupling with me, she’d eventually had her mother approach my wives and got their support in twisting my arm to oblige her. Helena and Jukar had also become best friends during this time and Elpida and my wives used this as the excuse to have Elpida visit as often as possible as well as insisting that I kept on ‘interacting’ with her. As I now had a genuine affection for Elpida (as well as a contract to ‘service’ one of the Gorgon community every year, negotiated by Roisin) it wasn’t an issue any more, though the whole matter still caused me extreme pangs of guilt at times. This my wives dismissed as irrelevant, though all knew it came from my upbringing by my family and Morgana’s careful training in the Council’s moral code.

No, I don’t understand them at all, but they’re happy, so, so am I.

“It is good to see you again, my John.”

“You too, my Lady,” I replied as we hugged.

“We are talking to Athena and she believes she can enable our curse on this new world.”

“What of Medusa, Stheno and Euryale?”

“Apparently agreements are in place, something about a bar and free drinks,” she replied looking a little confused.

“Well, that explains a few things,” I said with a grin, before letting Elpida and Nell in on what Athena had offered to her ‘gods’.

“It must be a very strange place, this bar of yours,” Nell finally said with a wry expression.

“Well, it wasn’t until the Theurgists from the Vatican began using it,” I chuckled.

“I had to forbid Helena from coming,” Elpida added, changing the topic.

“I understand. She has no issue as yet?”

“She looks for a man as wonderful as her sire.”

“I wouldn’t have thought that so hard,” I replied frowning slightly.

“You do yourself an injustice, my love.”

“Only in your eyes, my Lady.”

“Still, until she has a child, she cannot join the honour guard units.”

“As is right, her line must continue,” I nodded; though perfectly aware both Elpida and her mother Tryphaina were still within the childbearing age of a Gorgon, whose lifespan was measured in centuries, not decades, as was her grandmother, the Aglia (leader) come to that.

“Yes, my John,” she agreed. “Though you may have set the bar impossibly high,” she finished with a giggle.

“I’m sure the right man ... or men are out there, my Lady,” I chuckled.

“As am I, my John. As it is I have been assigned to your tent along with Brianna, Clair, Xi and Roxanne,” she smirked.

“Why am I not surprised,” I sighed as Elpida had named all of those in the encampment with whom I had a physical, if infrequent and sanctioned by my wives, relationship.

Yes, my wives arrange my extracurricular love life; no, I don’t really get a say in it. Sure, I can say no, however that brings all five of them into the attack and ramping up my feelings of guilt in making them unhappy with me. Hence I go along with ‘friends’ of theirs who do not have a regular partner, but who want a date with someone they like and trust. Am I happy about this? No, most definitely not. Do I object? No, I understand why they want this for their friends and I do my best to make the ‘date’ as good as possible for the friend. But, it doesn’t and probably will not ever sit right with me and my wives know this and appreciate my efforts never to let this show on a ‘date’. Again though it makes them happy, their friends happy and to be honest it’s also a lot of fun for me too, so I do it for them whilst appreciating that I’ll never understand them.

At this point Nell was summoned to talk to Marja, Adok and Daniel as they began helping to assemble the tents set aside for the wolves and Nosferatu.

The tents themselves were wonders of ‘Mage’ engineering. Made of the same material as our armour, they were lightweight, insulated and passively ward-powered for light and power. They could also pretty much stop a small firearm bullet and could in an emergency be shielded to allow escape. They could also be raised and lowered within minutes without using magic and were adapted to the various species we had along with us.

The last to arrive at the camp were a contingent of Fae including, to my surprise, several Drow.

“Greetings Talshish, my friend,” I called out when they appeared, getting a grin and a wave from him.

“Greetings, friend John,” he finally replied after giving out a few orders and directions as to where their tents were.