Some Answers

Nallen kept walking me through the steps needed to heal my father. In truth, it was more him teaching me to teach my father’s body a different way to heal. ‘Physician, heal thyself’ indeed. His case would require huge amounts of food - that missing mass wasn’t going to come from nowhere! - but once started the process would be all but automatic. It wouldn’t require upkeep, not from either of us anyway. Future injuries wouldn’t even require the massive nutritional intake that replacing Daddy’s missing lower legs would, at least assuming nothing got amputated. Even if we couldn’t teach his body - he might not have the needed power - it would still be possible to replace his missing limbs, it would just take time and a lot more personal attention.

Unfortunately, before I could try teaching Daddy’s body mine had to learn.

I growled, I’m sure Nallen would have said it sounded cute, but I was pissed. It was frustrating, something about this healing was just continually outside my grasp. Nallen had inflicted numerous small cuts, little more than paper cuts really, always in pairs. I would attempt to concentrate while he was healing the first and then repair the second myself. The pain was annoying but secondary. Most things thaumaturgic I had picked up easily, this healing was just mocking me. I sure hoped Daddy would get it more easily.

“Again,” I demanded. We were sitting across from each other at a small table - like a two-seat table you would see at any cafe, my right hand resting on the cool black surface.

“Relax, with how tense you are you aren’t going to learn anything,” Nallen stroked the back of my arm with one hand, the other healing away the previous attempt as he did so.

I knew the spot he was going to cut first, it had been the same every time - we had done half a dozen iterations by this point. I took a deep breath, focusing all my concentration on that one spot, ignoring the sharp pain of Nallen drawing a razor across my skin. A line of blood welled up, the cut was so shallow that not even a single drop formed. I took another deep breath, willing myself to ignore everything except the minute fluctuations in the thaumaturgic field. I knew that part of the problem actually stemmed from Nallen, this was far easier to teach with more serious injuries but he was simply unwilling to inflict that kind of torment. The more serious the injury the longer healing it would take. These cuts were minor enough as to be healed almost instantly under Nallen’s finger, no matter that he slowed the process as much as possible.

I sensed something different this time. Nallen had made the cuts a tiny fraction deeper each repetition - I could feel his discomfort giving me even these relatively tiny injuries - he had passed a threshold. This time when he healed me I followed the process from start to finish. The scan to determine what needed healing, the lock to immobilize working area, feeding a trickle of power so that cells had time to grow and set, cleaning up afterward. With such small cuts it took more time to describe the steps than to actually perform them. I had understood the lock and cleanup easily enough, it had been the scan and actual repair that had eluded me.

I must have understood more of that last than I realized because this time as soon as Nallen started scanning both cuts healed. It was complete even faster than when he had been healing me in preparation for trying again, when he had not been taking his time. This did make sense, even when being healed bodies would attempt to resist foreign influence. With serious injuries and someone who could not heal themselves it was standard to use the same sort of equipment as the teacher, it would place the subject in the non-responsive state, holding them there while the work was being done.

I stared at the back of my hand, not a single mark visible to show the trial I had undergone.

“So what is this place, Lin? I mean this building.”

“It’s called Fort Lascall. It used to be important, protecting the plateau and lake to the rear but now it’s the t’Laptrour family retreat.” Mom and I were in the great-room. I wanted to talk with her, tell her about what had happened. Tell her those things Daddy really didn’t want to hear about.

CLANG

There was an indescribable noise, moments later the floor shook.

“What was that? I don’t think it was an earthquake.”

“No idea, let me find Nallen.” A frantic scan. Whew, he’d just returned from Londrail.

“It’s...” the floor bucked again. “Nallen ... he says it’s a pair of dragons fighting.”

“Dragons?”

“I haven’t seen them but Nallen told me...” this time the shaking wasn’t as bad. “He told me we’re in the middle of their mating season.”

I knew Daddy had just started with the teacher, just started learning Betwan. I hoped whatever that did to turn off the brain while new knowledge was assimilated could keep him out for this.

“Is there someplace we can watch?”

I passed the question to Nallen. Before he could answer he walked out of thin air, I don’t think Mom had seen this trick, she just about fell over backward in surprise.

“How about we stay inside? There’s the observation deck but I would still feel safer not exposing you two. We could watch on the screen. I told Aneeka to wait with your father.”

I had been kept so busy I hadn’t even asked if they had anything like television, “Screen?”

It turned out I had actually seen the ‘screen’ in question, from a distance it had just looked like another window. Nallen led us over, there was another rumble through the ground, the screen was just as tall as the other windows - it stretched the full fifteen feet from floor to header and was twice as wide. Thankfully Nallen was able to split off a section so we were looking at a view perhaps four foot by six.

The dragons were magnificent. Both had lustrous red scales, sinuous necks, bulging muscles about their shoulders. One was a fair bit larger than the other, the larger the obvious victor. Only some nearby trees, several torn down from their scuffle, gave clue to the dimension of what we were seeing. I gasped when I realized that only the larger was male, even the female had to be fifty feet from nose to the tip of her tail - most of that neck and body. I gasped again when I realized what was likely to come next.

Mom turned partway, still not taking her eyes fully away from the sight in front of us, “What?”

“He’s going to ... going to...”

I didn’t have to finish. The dragon’s prick was massive - I would guess as large as Nallen’s entire body. The female didn’t resist as the male mounted her, his head thrown back, a cry of victory issuing from his maw. I wouldn’t have believed such a massive creature could slam its hips like that.

I was very surprised to see the flush creeping up Mom’s neck. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the screen.

The dragon’s full-throated victory roar changed to a gout of flame, lasting only a couple seconds.

“I’m guessing that was... ?” I didn’t want to finish.

“No-one’s ever been in a position to confirm but we assume so.”

“Does one of them have territory nearby? Is that why the other side of the lake’s undeveloped?”

“Yeah. Drebaeble, the male, nests somewhere over there.”

And the female?”

“I’ve never seen her before, that’s not unusual, during the rut females will fly around. Not really to attract a mate, that’s given, but to find one that can subdue her.”

Drebaeble had evidently recovered, this time twisting his neck along the smaller female’s. There was no cry, his hip motion not nearly so brutal.

“How long will this last? And what happens when they’re done?”

“They will go two, perhaps three, more times. She will leave, back to her own lair. Dragons do not pair-bond. She’ll probably lay fifteen to twenty eggs but it is unusual for more than one, rarely two, to survive the nest.”

“What happens to them?”

“Nestling dragons are ruled by instinct. They kill and eat each other.”

“Sad. You’d think the mother would stop that. I can’t imagine letting my kids kill each other,” Mom commented.

“Dragons are /not/ human, Missus Piance. It’s a damn good thing for us that they do, even a yearling dragon is a tough fight. If all those hatchling survived the world would be overrun. As it is we rely as much on the adult males killing each other to keep their numbers down.”

“I suppose. And please, call me Martha ... or Mom.”

I blushed, thinking about how Nallen continually referring to me as ‘Miss Piance’ had affected me during our initial meeting. And then blushed again seeing Drebaeble finish, not much fire but a lot of smoke.

“What about him? Will he just return across the lake?”

“Most likely. Game’s far more plentiful there.”

I flopped boneless into a chair, Nallen had given me a soul-searing kiss then departed so Mom and I could return to our interrupted conversation. There was another chair across from a low table, she sat much more primly.

“Okay, dear, I can tell somethings eating you from the inside.”

“I keep worrying about whether I’m still me! I think about what I was like a week ago and I can’t imagine having sex with a girl ... I could barely even imagine doing it with a guy ... you know I was still a virgin, right?”

Mom nodded, “I suspected. What does Nallen say - have you told him about your worries?”

“He told me it is my personality that attracted him. That changing me would ruin what makes me ‘me’.”

A very slow nod. “You know I experimented a bit, I told you because I thought maybe you were ... wired that way, I wanted you to be comfortable if that’s who you were. You already knew Dave wasn’t my first guy, or I his first woman.”

“Nallen’s told me a bit about his first two lovers. The second actually set up the first. It’s a weird story by Earth standards but is kinda romantic.” I used my connection, asking Nallen if it was okay to tell Mom about Emelia and Bethaneal.

“/Sure, no problem/.”

“I can understand the first setting up the second, but the second setting up his first sounds like it has to be a good story.”

I took a deep breath, “Okay, first, this was when Nallen was seventeen, there was a girl - also seventeen -, his friend, she was dying.”

Mom’s fingertips flew up covering her lips.

“She didn’t want to die a virgin. That part’s understandable.”

Another nod, “Very understandable. But she was his second lover? What’d she do, get someone to go first to teach him?”

I giggled, “Right on the money. Only the other woman is - actually, was I think - a world-famous courtesan. Emelia hired her. Nallen said he and Bethaneal are still friends, they talk a few times a year.”

“That is ... you’re right, that is ... kind of romantic if you think about it right. Why did this even come up? Between you and Nallen I mean.”

“He said we needed to know each other. How we each got to be the way we are - I’m only guessing that part, he didn’t actually say it. He did say the part about knowing each other. Anyway, we got sidetracked from my worries.”

“I think he’s right, dear. As long as you can trust that it is actually your personality that was such a great match. The way you talk, it’s like you believe he really could re-write who you are, do you actually believe that?”

A quick nod, “Just wait ‘til you use the teacher, Mom.”

“Thought you said it can’t erase ‘real’ memories.”

“That’s what they’ve told me. Maybe I’m just being crazy. Maybe it’s that I didn’t know what it was going to do the first time. Even if he /did rewrite who I am, I can’t imagine being happier.”

“There you go. So the way you talk, he must’ve been worth the wait?”

“/MOM!/” I couldn’t believe how hot my cheeks flushed, how far down my neck it traveled. Even my nipples stiffened.

“I’m guessing you’re also at least a bit submissive. I can’t believe Nallen’s the type to play bottom.”

“/MOOMM!!/”

“Dave’s like that, I /do/ enjoy putting him through his paces. So, what’d Nallen do, just not take ‘no’ for an answer? He might not be a bottom but I can’t believe he’d just rape you, not with the way you talk.”

“Mern - Nallen’s father - told me rape of an offworlder is still a crime. He’d have been pissed if Nallen had done that.”

“But...”

“But sexual assault is not. Nallen kept touching me, exciting me, until I begged him. He was between my thighs, almost in position and actually threatened to stop and wait for the wedding, I was frantic that he not stop - I think he was actually bluffing, no way he could have stopped right then.”

“Did you ever say ‘no’, ‘stop’ or even ‘slow down’? Even if you thought he wouldn’t listen?”

“No, Mom. I never said anything like that. I didn’t even say anything like that to Aneeka. I didn’t meet Nallen until the day after I woke up here, Aneeka was with me. I kept quietly watching, kept calm thinking at some point I’d have a chance for escape. That was before I was certain this isn’t Earth. I thought if I cooperated they might drop their guard.”

“Well, I can’t say I’m happy, but then again I don’t think I’m unhappy either. Sounds like while he pushed things what he did might not qualify as rape even in New York. Kidnapping, of course, and probably some others but not rape.”