Rd 3 Ch 6

Chapter 6

After initiating all of the Mul'Branova, the day became a whirlwind. Gloria dragged me from function to function within the fortress, introducing me to the people in charge and having me sign off on various forms.

It felt like work someone else could have done, but I quickly realized Gloria was also very clearly making me the person in charge of the operation. Everything was already done; I was just giving the final sign-off and showing my face to every security and sustainability function within the fortress.

Most of those I saw were also people I had just initiated, so I kept my comments scarce, with plenty of nods and smiles of encouragement rather than any actual words to risk triggering a compulsion. 

We walked out into the crisp night air. It had fallen dark several hours ago, and I put my hands on Gloria's shoulders running my thumbs across her tense mucles. "I can see just how much work you have done. You must be exhausted." 

She huffed, "Of course I'm exhausted, but this work has to be done, or else lots of people are going to die, right?" She said the words almost as if she was trying to make it her problem. 

"Not only lots of people, but the Family will certainly lose many people they care about." I tried to make it personal for her, sensing that she needed something driving her.

Gloria nodded, and in a small spark, the determination rekindled itself in her eyes. 

"But good news, I am going to be here with you, and when I leave next time, you're coming with me, and we can leave Orvin with all of this shit." 

Gloria chuckled. "He's going to hate that.” She paused before speaking again. “You're going to take me on this vault trip?"

I had already committed to it, but she needed validation. "Of course. I’m not going anywhere without you." I told her, stopping our walk to do a full spin, taking in the fort. "I feel like I've seen most of this. But I’m not clear on one thing. Where do I sleep?" 

Gloria waited for me to follow, walking towards the residential building. "Do you remember the map? In the elite enticement building I had mentioned before?" 

"All right. Is that where I stay?" I asked.

"No, that's not complete." She gestured to the second quadrant. "It would be over that way. But I got the design because…” she waved as she entered the main residential building, and the guard let her in without a problem. "I built a nicer version on the top floor here." She said, walking over to the bank of elevators. Letting them slide open, she used a key that I thought was to open the panel, but instead, the elevator accepted as if she had pushed a button and began to ride upwards. 

"We got the penthouse." I stated. It was also on top of essentially a barracks, meaning it was the safest place in the fortress.

"You got the penthouse." She confirmed. "I would also note that you have a number of guest rooms," she said, her face falling slightly flat at those words. 

"You, Nyx, Simone." I ran off their names. "Makes sense.”

“Simone somehow convinced me to make more than that." Gloria grumbled, playing with a lock of violet hair that had escaped her bun to frame her face.

The elevator was quick, and it dinged up, opening up with a gate across it. Gloria unlocked the gate and slid it aside, stepping out into a luxury apartment that resembled the one that I had bought in downtown Vein City. There was lots of dark, black marble, with a freestanding fireplace, plush leather upholstery on the couch and chairs, as well as everything needed in a modern kitchen. 

Gloria waved me in.

Nyx was currently in the kitchen, going through the cabinets. "Welcome, Bran." She turned back to what she was doing. The top cabinets would have been a problem for her before her transformation. Now she was looking at the top shelves at eye level, lifted up by her tail. Meanwhile her serpents quietly poked around the neighboring cabinets. Seemed she was settling in well.

"Is Simone back?" I asked

Nyx shook her head with her snakes mimicking her. "Not yet," she muttered while rifling through the cabinets. "I think she's working with the servants and the Mul’Branova. Lots of them have been coming to her since she returned."

I nodded and sat down on the couch with a thump, my weight slowly squishing the couch cushion into a pancake.

Gloria started helping Nyx at the cabinets. 

"Simone said she wanted to manage the servants," I said absently. Though we all knew it was more than that.

"And you're going to let her?" Gloria asked. 

I shrugged. "It's not exactly a secret that Simone is better with people than me." I was as blunt as a maul to face and that’s the way I preferred it.

Nyx chuckled to herself. "Bran, you're not bad with people." 

"No. I do sometimes lack the patience to work with them, though, which might as well make me bad. It only takes one or two bad experiences with a leader to taint your opinion of them." 

Nyx shrugged and then lifted herself higher on her tail to get something from the top shelf. "A number of ladies, the Mul'Branova," she said, hesitating on the term, "asked if we would do an instance with them." 

I raised an eyebrow and looked at Gloria. "Do you think that's wise?" 

"Why wouldn't it be?" She asked. 

"Well, honestly," I scratched the side of my head, "I'm worried I would depress them all. My stats have changed quite a bit." 

Gloria frowned, and I could tell she was trying to inspect me.

I let the inspection through, not stopping it with my spirit, only to watch as Gloria's eyes bug out. I smiled, feeling pretty good about myself at that moment. 

She sputtered a little before resuming a more neutral stance. "You're a freak," she finally said. 

I was going to take that as a compliment. I focused back on Nyx. "If Gloria has a reaction like this, you can understand why I'd be hesitant in the reaction I might get from the Mul'Branova. I might even make them all feel like what they were working towards was pointless because," I gestured at myself, "I can apparently be too incredible. Though my growth is going to slow until the Rapture." 

"Humility is not your best attribute," Gloria huffed, finishing with Nyx and then working at the coffee machine. 

"Coffee? Do we still have work to do?" I asked. 

"Hot cocoa," Gloria explained. "Because I'm tired and I want something for comfort." 

I left her alone.

Nyx had found a snack and was making her way over to the couch.

Pulling the gorgon onto my lap, I let her tail spill around me, onto the couch and down to the floor. "How are you getting around the fortress?" I glanced down at her serpentine lower half, as if to clarify. 

"Not bad at all," Nyx said. "I reduce the number of people you can fit in the elevator, that's for sure. However, I have enough strength that none of the stairs are difficult. Most of them have ramps anyways. You don't appreciate handicap access points until you need them," she chuckled. "And the Mul'Branova took one look at my stats before they cheered me on. Above everything else, they seem to want strength." 

I noticed she was holding a small bowl of fish shaped crackers, but it was her serpents that were picking them up and moving a cracker to her mouth when she wanted one.

"No one minded the hair?" I asked, stroking a wandering snake that wrapped around behind Nyx to nuzzle against me. It closed its eyes and three more suddenly needed attention.

"No, but a few were afraid to look at me, thinking I would turn them to stone. I just publicly convinced a few others that it wasn't a problem. After they saw no one was turning to stone, there were no further issues." Nyx munched on her snack. “Probably going to have to teach all the new people that one though.”

I chuckled at the story, though it would be more humorous if it wasn't a slightly painful reality for her. Though people not wanting to look at her might affect Nyx still to some degree.

"And besides, Gloria's built an absolutely fantastic place here. Really, Gloria, I'm in awe of how you managed all of this." Nyx nodded as her serpents stuffed another cracker in her mouth.

Gloria was coming back with her hot cocoa and couldn't hold off the smile twitching at her lips. 

"It's fine. The Nestor family provided tons of support. We have more than a few people who work construction." She glanced at me. "More construction than pouring concrete around people's feet." 

“I didn't say anything.” My attempt to raise my hands to prove my innocence failed with Nyx’s snake hair wrapped firmly around my wrists. She was such a cuddler and her hair outed her.

"Your history with the Nestor family makes me think you only saw the dirty underbelly." She pushed.

"I was part of the dirty underbelly," I told her. "Doesn't mean I didn't know there were legit businesses on the topside, including construction. We had to put the occasional corpse in a legit construction site." 

Gloria grunted as she sat down with her hot chocolate and took a moment to savor a sip before continuing. "What about you, Nyx? Besides your wonderful stats, what else are you bringing to all of this?" Gloria asked.

The question sounded slightly like a challenge of her character. However, I decided to let the two girls settle this themselves. Nyx needed to stand up for herself to get Gloria’s approval.

"According to Bran, I'm brimming with talent." Nyx smiled. "But unlike you and Simone, I don't have the breadth of real-world knowledge to really have something I'm incredible at doing yet." Nyx folded her hands in her lap, putting the bowl aside with no amount of humility, and dipped her head towards Gloria. "So, I would like to be as helpful as I can, learning all of the ways that you and Simone can't quite help Bran and fill in the gaps where I can." 

Gloria sat back, shifting her posture slightly like she was putting on her mobster persona, a slight wave of intimidation coming off of her towards Nyx. "Bran, I didn't know you brought back four servants," she said coldly, causing Nyx to freeze up.

Her serpent hair, not moving an inch, all of their heads turned to Gloria as if ready to strike at a moment's notice.

Using the freedom granted to my arms, I wrapped them around Nyx to comfort her. "Careful, Gloria," I warned. "Pretty sure if Nyx wanted to, she could take you." 

Gloria narrowed her eyes. "A willing hand is wonderful, however, without any skills, it's a little bit of a disappointment." Gloria clicked her tongue. 

It seemed I needed to find a spot for the british gorgon now. "Nyx, you learned plenty of survival training from your father, correct?" I said, after a moment. The Heros would have prepared her. 

"Well, yeah, of course. In his own way, he was preparing me for instances in the future. He taught me how to hunt, how to live out in the wilds, small-scale sustenance farming, which is harder than you would think it is. As well as many other tricks to build shelters and such." She rattled off thoughtfully tapping her chin.

I nodded and glanced at Gloria. "For life inside the fort and building the fort, she might not have skills you are interested in, Gloria. However, when it comes to the world after the demons come, Nyx will be far more prepared to lead groups out of the fortress and successfully bring them back. Teaching the Mul'Branova how to hunt in the coming days, as well as any advice you can give them on survival and farming, would be wonderful, Nyx," I said, firmly giving her a job. 

Nyx blinked and nodded. "I guess I hadn't considered that to be a particularly useful skill." 

"It both is and isn't," Gloria said, though she seemed to have backed down.

I glared at the mob princess before turning my attention back to Nyx. "What she's trying to say," I explained, "is that within the context of the fortress project, it isn't a particularly valuable skill. However, in the coming days, we can expect it to be critical."

I paused, considering my next words carefully. "Even with the enhanced strength of the initiated, if they let themselves be weathered down by the environment, they're caught unaware by monsters at night, or completely incapable of tracking their next meal, they will find it incredibly difficult to survive. No, impossible."

I glance at the two ladies, tension down to a low simmer between them. "You two have fun," I said, removing Nyx from my lap and getting up to stretch. "It's been a long day and I'm going to turn in. Don't forget, we have a date tomorrow, Gloria." I glanced at her, more determined than ever to fix the tension between us. I could see how it was spreading to the other ladies around me.

"As for you, Nyx," I say, turning to her, "I hope tomorrow you can work with Simone and get to know the Mul'Branova better. That way, they'll take your advice more readily when I start having you teach them how to survive."