Swarming Sovereignty

Chrys stepped out of the shower, quickly drying herself off and getting dressed. She had, of course, put her “normal” outfit aside for washing, and was using the casual outfit Mary had made for her instead. It was nice to have multiple sets of clothes again, even if she’d never use anything but her “default” outfit for anything serious. Yes, the monster armor was almost like a second skin, perfectly comfortable to wear in day-to-day life, and yes it had mild self-repair qualities to it, but it wasn’t any more resistant to becoming dirty, and being able to wash it and wear a set of clothes that fit was nice.

“I’m done showering!” She called out, making her way to the living room. “What did you need?”

As she entered, she came into view of her mother and her lovers. “Done already?” Rose asked, looking up from a book. “I thought you preferred longer showers.”

“I’ll take one later, but I won’t actually be able to relax until I hear what you needed me for.”

“Um…right.” Lia said awkwardly. “So…the three of us…well, we…sort of got another girlfriend?”

Chrys stopped in place, staring blankly at Lia. “What? Who?”

“You don’t know her yet, so we’re going to take you to meet her.” Rose explained. “But it’s a little…complicated. She’s an otherworlder the gods chose to staff the Dimension of Discounts, so she’s not part of the swarm and we’re still working on getting her permission to come visit us, so we’re going to take you to her.”

“Um, okay then.” Chrys said. “When?”

“Now.” Lia said, a portal opening up beside her. “And…you know what, you didn’t get a relaxing shower, we’ll take you to the hot springs and you can tell us all about your trip while we’re there.”

“Hot…springs? When did we have those?”

“We got a day or two ago.” Rose said. “As a reward for Amelia’s progress.”

“And they’re…where?”

“Inside the Dimension of Discounts, though we’re looking to bring them outside eventually.” Lia said. They’re nice, too, I’m sure you’ll love them.”

“I suppose.” Chrys said, walking towards the portal. “This all seems rather sudden, though. Why now?”

“It’s complicated.” Lia repeated. “Long story short, she was holding herself back, and the dam finally burst, so to speak. We decided to give it a go, on a trial basis.”

Chrys reached the portal, waited for Lia to go in, then followed. She emerged into an odd…warehouse of sorts, with white tiled floors and odd white lights set into the ceiling. A quick glance around revealed a lot of shelving behind her, and a strangely-styled building in front of her.

Standing in front of the building was an average-looking woman with short brown hair, fidgeting nervously. “Ah, um…it’s a pleasure to formally meet you, Chrys.” She said, giving a bow. “I’m Connie, Goddess of Commerce.”

Chrys froze once again, turning and giving her mother a wooden stare. For her part, Rose looked nearly as surprised as Chrys, staring at Connie in confusion.

“Are you sure it’s okay to say that?” Lia asked. “I thought it was a secret.”

“I was given permission to tell the older members of your family.” Connie said, straightening up. “It would make things…awkward if you had to hide everything, and we can trust them.”

“You’re not…pulling my leg, right?” Chrys whispered.

The shadows seemed to deepen ever so slightly, the air around Connie becoming more serious. “It’s true.” Connie said, the sound of her voice reaching deep into Chrys’s soul and making it clear that it was the Goddess of Commerce speaking. “I am the former God of Commerce, now the Goddess of Commerce.”

The atmosphere returned to normal, as did Connie’s voice. “But…please, treat me as your mother’s girlfriend, not as a god. For the time being, that’s what I am, and I would like it if there is not a wall in our relationship because of my status.”

“Uh…” Chrys wasn’t quite sure what to say to that. It was one thing to know that her mother had relatively casual contact with the gods, but to be dating one? She wasn’t sure she could just…pretend Connie was a normal person. “I’ll try?”

“You’ll get used to it in no time, she’s a sweet girl,” Amelia said encouragingly, “no different from you or I underneath it all.”

“We were thinking we’d let Chrys have a soak in the hot springs.” Lia said. “That might be a good opportunity for us all to get to know each other better.”

To Chrys’s surprise, Connie actually blushed. “M-me too? I mean, it’s not that I’m not interested but…it’s just so soon and…”

“If you’re not ready, then you don’t need to come in with us.” Rose said gently. “Take all the time you need.”

“I…I think I’ll pass this time.” Connie replied bashfully. “I’m just…not emotionally prepared for that yet. But, um, if you want to play games after, then I’d be more than happy to join.”

“We’ll let you know.” Rose replied. “It’ll depend on if Chrys is feeling up to it, though.”

“There’s no pressure or anything, Chrys.” Connie added. “If you’re not comfortable with it, then you don’t need to force yourself.”

“I’ll, um, think about it.” Chrys said. “I…yeah.”

Connie gave her a little smile. “Thank you.” She said.

Chrys blinked in surprise. “For what?”

“For not putting me on a pedestal and caving to anything I even remotely hint at wanting.” Connie said. “Most mortals I talk to trip over themselves to accommodate me. Though…I guess I mostly talk with my clergy, so that might not be the best comparison? Still, the fact that I am grateful remains.”

Connie stepped away from the entrance and motioned for the group to enter. “You all know your way around the place. I’m going to go take care of some business, I’ll be back in half an hour or so, okay?”

“Thanks, Connie.” Amelia said, walking up and giving her a hug. “Just let us know if you need anything, and we’ll see what we can do, okay?”

Connie grew bright red. “U-um, thank you.” She said. “I…I will.”

The hug lasted for a moment, and then Amelia let go, giving a meaningful glance at Lia and Rose. They too walked up, gave Connie a quick hug and said a few words, and then made for the door. Chrys quickly followed, trying not to stare at the overwhelmed goddess, and soon she was in the building with the rest.

“So, um…about that.” Chrys began.

“We’ll talk more in the springs.” Amelia said. “Best to be relaxing first.”

She took out a strange flat rectangle and pressed it up to a black box next to a door at the back of the lobby. There was a whirring and a click, and then a green light flashed on the box, and Amelia opened the door. She led the group down a short hallway and into a room with a sign labeled “changing room” above it, where she stopped. “Rose, do you want to explain or should I?”

“I’ll take it from here.” Rose said, grabbing Chrys’s hand and gently leading her into the room. It was a strange room, filled with smooth white tiles and similarly smooth white walls. There were a bunch of large metal shelves on one of the walls, with slits at the top of the doors allowing a peek at the contents. On the opposite side of the shelves there were two empty doorways, set a slight distance apart.

Rose reached down to their side into a bin, then pulled out two large white towels and handed one to Chrys. “When in the hot spring, use this to cover yourself up.” She instructed. “You can leave your clothes in one of the lockers here, and there are apparently locks somewhere if you want them, but when it’s just us you don’t really need to bother. Before going in, make sure to wash yourself off over at the showers”, she motioned at the empty doorways, “but since you’ve already showered you shouldn’t need to bother.”

“Are there private places to change?” Chrys asked, scanning the room.

“Down near the toilets.” Rose replied. “At the far end, past the showers, you can’t really see them from here.”

“Right. I’ll just…get changed and then hop in and wait for you all?”

“Sounds like a plan.” Rose said, tousling Chrys’s hair affectionately. “See you in a bit.”

Chrys hurried down towards the far end of the room, and true to her mother’s word, there were indeed some stalls within which she could change privately. She hurriedly stripped herself, fastened the towel securely around her waist so she was covered up, and then stepped out. She went over to one of the “lockers” as Rose had called them, took a few moments to figure out how to open it, and then stashed her clothes inside and headed for the hot springs.

As she emerged from the room, she found that she was suddenly in some sort of mountain grove, centered around a large stone pool of water. There was an odd, almost egglike smell in the air, but it wasn’t unpleasant; it just…gave the area some character.

Chrys waded into the water, wincing slightly at the heat as she settled herself down against one of the walls, buried up to her neck in the water. As she let the soothing warmth spread over her body, she thought back on the last few minutes. She just…couldn’t understand; why had they jumped into this so suddenly? Why were they in a relationship with a goddess, and why couldn’t said goddess give any aid?

Still, that explained where they had been getting all the information on the gods from. Chrys had just assumed that it was a result of Amelia being Amelia, but it seemed that it was actually because they had direct contact with a god, and apparently they got on very well with her.

She thought on the subject for another minute or so, and then her mother exited the changing room, walking over and settling into the hot spring next to Chrys. “Tell me your thoughts.” She said, slinging an arm around Chrys. “You seem overwhelmed.”

“I just don’t get it.” Chrys admitted. “This seems so fast, and it’s with a goddess? It seems…out of character for you, I mean, I understand when it was Amelia, that had brewed over time, but…you can’t tell me you knew a goddess well enough to get into a relationship, right?”

“It’s true, I had only talked with her a few times before.” Rose admitted. “But Lia’s had rather extensive contact with her and seems to think it could work, and I trust her judgement. And the conversations I’ve had with her have me inclined to agree. In a way kind of like Amelia, she reminds me of how I used to be, and I just want to spoil her and show her how much happier she can be if she opens herself up.

“Though, to be honest, I agreed to it in part because I felt that, if we didn’t do something at the exact moment she opened up, she would close her heart again and would never allow herself the opportunity to love.”

“Like we said before, this is…different than how it was when Rose and I started dating, or even when we started dating Amelia.” Lia said, sitting on the other side of Rose. “Watch how you sit on your tail in the water, by the way.” She advised. “If you’re not careful with it your fur will get all messed up and it’ll be hard to fix.”

Chrys shifted, letting her tail free. She had become accustomed to using it as an impromptu cushion, like she would her arm as a pillow. It was an unconscious thing, and more and more she found herself forgetting that she wasn’t always a foxkin, or that she didn’t used to look like Lia. In fact, she had even begun seeing bits of herself in Lia, which was an odd sensation.

Or…bits of Lia in herself? It was things like the shape of her nose, the way her ears and tail moved, or one of many other similar things. In many ways, she was coming to somewhat accept that Lia and her were related by blood now, and that was strange.

Her old mother would have hated it, but that was a good thing; after her mother became able to feel, and after seeing how Lia’s parents treated their children, she had come to realize that her old mother was toxic, not someone Chrys wanted in her life.

In fact, she was sure that Lia and Amelia loved her more than her old mother had, which she found amusing, given how Amelia had her old mother’s soul. She had gotten over that oddity a lot faster than she thought she would, too; in the end, Amelia and her old mother were wildly different people, and that was that. Amelia was no more her old mother than someone would be if they wore her old mother’s clothes.

“Are you okay, Chrys?” Lia asked, reaching over and gently shaking Chrys. “You spaced out there.”

“Sorry, I was distracted with the tail.” Chrys said. “I’m fine. What were you going to say?”

“This is much more of a get-to-know-you kind of dating than things were with Rose or Amelia.” Lia explained. “I mean…with them it was pretty clear where things were heading, but Connie is a little more uncertain. I think it has potential to work, but I could just as easily see us breaking up on good terms. It’s going to be tricky, but I’m not opposed to having more people to love.”

“Aren’t you glad I did away with that obsession with monogamy?” Amelia teased, settling down next to Lia. “I always knew that you had too much love for one or two people.”

Lia sighed. “I’m not happy with how you did it, but it’s…probably a net positive. As long as everyone involved agrees, I don’t think we have any business interfering with how people choose to love, and no one else should, either.”

“And what about you, Amelia?” Chrys pressed. “You have no problems with adding another person to the relationship?”

Amelia gave her a quizzical look. “Of course not.” She said. “If everyone else in the relationship wants it, I fully intend to make myself fall in love with someone; why would I want to be in the way of their happiness when I could just…not be in the way? Plus, it feels good to love, so everyone’s happy.

“And don’t give me anything about it not being natural or whatever, because it feels just like the “normal” stuff, and I’m in the process of constantly changing those alterations to make them “deeper” so it’s not something shallow, either. I won’t hear any arguments on the subject, period.”

“I wasn’t going to say anything.” Chrys said.

“Good.” Amelia replied. “I’ve heard too much of it by now and I’m sick of it. It’s my mind, so it’s my choice.”

“So, um, why can’t Connie help us out more?” Chrys asked, eager to change the subject. “She’s a god, right?”

“The gods have rules.” Lia said. “And one of those rules is that they can’t directly interfere with the mortal realm, they have to be restricted to their domain, so to speak. In Connie’s case, she does so by staffing the Dimension of Discounts.”

“By the way, how was the Dimension of Discounts supposed to work before Connie got involved?” Rose asked. “Since I don’t imagine you made it with an operator in mind.”

“I didn’t.” Amelia confirmed. “And it didn’t look…anything like this, Connie gave it a makeover. It was going to be like…an actual trading post, not…whatever this is. But, yeah, it’d basically do the same stuff with less pizzazz, and none of the items from other worlds. It was going to be cheaper too, but I imagine Connie’s taking a little off of the top. That’s not really an issue, though, she brings enough to the table to make up for that.”

“I’ve been meaning to ask, but…what is Blood Money, anyway?” Lia asked. “It’s something Connie wants, so it has to be important, but I can’t figure out what.”

Amelia shrugged. “Dunno for sure.” She said. “I tried to make something similar to my Hero power and ended up with that. It can actually substitute for Hero power, and Jerry said that the Hero power was actually bits of the system that had ended up in me somehow, so Blood Money is probably related to the system in some way? That’s probably why Connie wants it.”

“Why have you stuck with the name Hero power?” Rose asked, amused. “What you’re referring to is definitely not related to Heroes. In both of my times as Hero I’ve never had anything remotely similar.”

“I don’t have a better name for it, and this has worked so far.” Amelia replied. “No use figuring one out.”

“It’s called Worship.” Connie said, stepping out of the changing room, face bright red. She was wearing a strange, shiny piece of black clothing that wrapped around her torso, leaving the arms and legs exposed, and was fidgeting slightly.

“Connie!” Amelia exclaimed happily. “You’re done already?! And…you’re coming in with us?”

Connie nodded shyly. “It turned out to be easier than I thought. And for here…I mean…it’s just a hot spring, it’s like a swimming pool. And Chrys is here, so nothing…intimate is going to happen.”

Amelia patted the empty water next to her. “Hop in!”

Connie bashfully entered the water, but didn’t sit directly next to Amelia, instead sitting a small distance away, facing the group. “S-sorry, baby steps. I’ll sit closer when I’m ready. I, um…well, like I was saying, what you call Hero power is more properly known as Worship, because it’s usually generated by people…worshipping things. Or, not always worship, but believe in or put their trust in. Basically, think of it like energy generated from the collective unconscious.

“It’s the source of the gods’ power, and we use it kind of like mortals use Mana. It’s a tricky thing to use, too, since you normally have to be a god or god equivalent to use it. That’s why we had to fix you, Amelia; it’s too dangerous for a mortal to have such prolonged exposure to the stuff without any safety measures, it’d destroy your body, and no healing magic would be able to fix it. Generally, if Worship causes something, you need Worship to interact with it.”

Amelia nodded. “I see. What does that make Blood Money, then? I tried to make it like this Worship stuff, but it’s obviously not.”

“That’s the issue.” Connie said, scratching the back of her head. “It is Worship, kind of. It’s like…like Worship with extra stuff sprinkled in, kind of like how most alcoholic drinks are water with extra stuff sprinkled in. And you somehow figured out how to make it without other people, you’re just…converting Mana into it.”

“And…that’s why it disappears when I do something weird like messing with the system, or what I did with Chrys?” Lia asked. “Because it’s this Worship stuff?”

“Exactly.” Connie said. “It was intended to be used to create items out of nothing with the Dimension of Discounts, but if you know how, you can use it to do…basically anything. What Amelia’s done with it and her modifications to the system are the only reason the swarm has been allowed to exist in its current form; if we can study and replicate them, these discoveries would be as important as discovering a way to produce infinite Mana. But…we can talk about that all later. Um…I got permission to come down to the mortal realm, as long as I stay in the World Tree.”

Lia gave her a big smile. “Glad to hear it.” She said. “Is that what you were doing?”

Connie nodded. “Y-yeah. And, um, if you were wondering, it’s fine if I talk to you all about this stuff. It’s not like it’s knowledge that you wouldn’t learn eventually, and it won’t give you any real advantages or anything, so…yeah. Just don’t tell other people, okay? Your parents are fine, and your siblings will be when they’re older, but just…be careful about it. We’re going to put a bit of a gag spell on you like we did with the Urge but, as Chrys has demonstrated, that’s not foolproof, so don’t bring it up unless you are absolutely sure there isn’t even a remote possibility of someone overhearing.”

Rose turned towards Chrys. “You…knew?” She said. “How long?”

“A while.” Chrys admitted. “I heard you guys talking about it. I…I’m sorry, Mom. I didn’t know how hard you had it, or I would have been better to you.”

Rose pulled Chrys in closer. “You have nothing to apologize for.” She said. “There’s no way you could have known. And, besides, if you hadn’t killed me, then we probably wouldn’t be here today, and I think we can both agree that this was the best thing to ever happen to us, so…it worked out in the end.”

“But –”

“No buts.” Rose said firmly. “We can talk about this later, but for now let’s talk about happy things. Connie, do you have any interesting stories you can tell us?”

“M-me?” Connie said, surprised. “My life was pretty boring.”

“I’m sure there was at least one funny or interesting thing you saw happen, even if it was on the mortal realm.” Rose said. “Humor me.”

“Well, um…this one time I was asked to intervene with this important trade deal…”

Fighterman481 Well, this chapter took a bit of a turn at the end, but I'm glad it did, because I don't think I ever did much explaining on Worship in this series, and it was a good time to sort of narrow the gap between what people who have read my other series or have asked questions in the comments know/figured out/speculated and what people who just read the text of this particular series know. Plus it explains what happened with the Dimension of Discounts, so that's a bonus too.

That aside, I find myself sort of surprised by how...motherly Rose ended up being. She just feels like the kind of person that wants to take care of others and one thing led to another and here we are. And writing shy Connie is a lot of fun too, most of the other relationships I've written sort of happened as a matter of course, so taking this one from a different angle is interesting.

That's all from me, though. Next time we're probably going to peek at what Connie was doing (and a bit more from her, expect some jumping of timelines), so look forward to it!

And, as always, thanks for reading!