Greed God chapter 175

April 3rd 2016 Brightedge City 11:00 PM EDT

As  much as I would have liked to go bang my wife into a sex coma, I was  unfortunately going to need to discuss this whole mess with some people  who could actually give me decent advice. Zee was at Shadowcrest. She'd  been splitting her time between here and her old place, but with Barbie  so wrapped up with Hildie and Emerald, and me busy with business and  Amy, she hadn't really had much reason to be around.

I  still needed to talk over the Brand with her, I'd been putting that off,  and this seemed like as good a chance as any, since I could distract  her with shiny new magic knowledge. So I gave her a call and asked her  to come over for a discussion, and to bring a few books on the fae. I  debated mentioning my mother directly, but I figured the curiosity would  be good motivation. My lightning phone made contact safe from prying  ears, but information was still a resource to be hoarded.

She  headed over immediately, bringing Jinx, who she'd taken back to her  place with her, along and sending the girl off to explore the house as  we settled down to talk in one of the studies. When we got inside, I  gestured for her to sit down and deposit her bag of books on the ground  before finally addressing the elephant in the room. "So, get any cool  tattoos lately?"

Whatever she'd been expecting, it hadn't  been that, and she snorted out a laugh, taking a second to regain  control of herself as her tension melted away. "Finally ready to talk  about that? I mean, I noticed it obviously, but since you weren't  actually DOING anything with it I didn't see a need to bring it up right  away. Still, that was mostly an emergency situation thing, and now that  we're home...for some values of that word, I would kind of like to hear  more about it."

That was...surprisingly practical. I  shouldn't be surprised. Zee was usually practical, it was one of the  things I liked best about her. I hadn't considered she would be able to  tell if I used the Brand on her. Seemed like my hands off policy had  helped my case here. "Fair enough. So, what do you want to know? There  are a few things I'm sure you already guessed, and I'd rather not go  over things you already know."

She smirked at that,  clearly pleased I had such faith in her perceptive abilities. "Alright,  well first is the most obvious. I'm pretty sure of this, but just to  confirm, is the mark the source of your ability to upgrade people? I've  noticed your magic trick is only done on people extremely close to you,  or ones who drink from that cup. It wasn't too hard to figure it out,  especially with Barbara's recent jump in power, but I'd like it  confirmed, and it would be nice to know how it works."

I  held up a hand and sawed it back and forth. "Yes and no. I can't upgrade  people without the Brand, but I can use my power on objects without any  real conditions. I usually avoid doing it to objects that aren't going  to be under my control because they can be used against me, so it's a  bit of a tradeoff." I didn't mention points or anything related to how  my powers worked. There was no reason to tell anyone the details of my  abilities. I got no benefit from it and it was a bit of risk I didn't  need to take.

She nodded thoughtfully. "Interesting. I've  been keeping an eye on the mark, and based on the little interaction  I've had I feel like I'd know if you used it on me. Since you have it,  and I could possibly get stronger from it, I'm not opposed to leaving it  alone for now." That was shocking, but before I could respond she held  up a finger sharply. "BUT. I have a condition. I want you to make sure  all the other girls are completely at my disposal. I saw some of their  abilities, and at least a few of them are magic based. I want to conduct  research on how their powers work. Especially Strega, since I have a  pretty solid baseline on what her abilities were before the upgrade.  Plus I want to help design my first upgrade."

I blinked.  That was...a lot better than expected. I could live with that. "Fine.  But keep me updated on your progress, and don't do anything permanent to  them. As for you... that's going to take a while. I have to wait longer  to stockpile the power for higher levels of power. You're at the same  level as Amy and I, and upgrading you even once is more difficult than  upgrading all of the current girls to our level. I can and will do it,  but it'll take me a while. You'll have to be patient."

Getting  anyone to C rank was going to be a fucking nightmare, much less  multiple people. My only real lead on that was figuring out how to  cleanse Raven of her demonic father's influence. She'd been incredibly  high ranked, and getting her under my control would pay out enough GP to  do some serious upgrading. I still had four million plus right now, but  like I'd told Zee, that wasn't even halfway to what I'd need for a  single C rank upgrade.

I was only willing to tell her that  much because I was keeping up the fiction that my power accrued over  time. It was the easiest way to give a reasonable explanation and still  keep things in reserve. With my current stockpile of GP I could spam a  few of the girls to D ranker if I needed to, and that was a good card to  keep in my back pocket. For now though, E rank should be plenty to keep  them safe.

With the messy nonsense out of the way, and  much faster and smoother than expected (I really had been a good  influence on Zee) I turned my attention to the bag of books. "Now, did  you bring the books I mentioned? There's a specific fae monarch I was  hoping to find out more about. She might become relevant to us sooner or  later and I want to have the best possible grasp on her that I can get.  Do any of those books have any references to 'the might beyond the  mirror', or Tsaritsa?"

Zee looked contemplative. "Maybe?  It sounds familiar. Give me a second. I've read all of these, but it's  been ages and even my memory is only so good." I wasn't shocked she had  enhanced memory. Her D rank was mainly mental and magical, and she had  some kind of weird magic brain gem or something from what I'd seen. She  rifled through the bag, flipping through the books to try to find  passages she half remembered, and finally came to a single red leather  bound tome with yellowing pages.

She flicked through it  for a minute before grinning up at me. "Got it! This is the one." She  stared down at the pages, skimming over them to summarize. "Tsaritsa,  the might behind the mirror. Ancient sorceress of fae origin, used to  rule the world way back when. Apparently she was such a huge asshole  that humanity rose up and ousted her, banishing her. Mostly forgotten  over time, she's still remembered in the form of a fable, and sometimes  reaches out to the unwary through reflections to try to return to our  world."

I reached out to pluck the book from her hands  carefully, skimming over the pages thoughtfully. The text was  handwritten, clearly the result of someone's personal research, but even  though the basics were there, I couldn't see any real details. It was a  couple paragraphs on Tsaritsa, no details on where she was banished to,  how she chose who to contact, or anything about her manifesting through  a vessel to have kids. I groaned in frustration. "This isn't much, do  you think you have any other texts on her?"

Zee just shook  her head. "Doubt it. I wouldn't have even thought to bring this if you  hadn't mentioned fae monarchs. Guiseppe Zatara, the ancestor who wrote  this, had an affair with a fae and became kind of obsessed. He spent his  life tracking down and cataloguing the various types of fae. I don't  think the connection between Tsaritsa and the might behind the mirror is  even common knowledge. I get the impression her name has mostly been  forgotten over time. Not that the might behind the mirror is a household  name, but its at least recent."

I cursed, passing her  back the book. That was...unfortunate. Information would have been  helpful. I leaned back with a sigh. "Well shit. It's fine, I can look  into other sources. How are things going with Jinx by the way? You have  her going down on you yet?" I grinned at the mental image, but Zee just  rolled her eyes at me.

"No." She said in an annoyed tone.  "Contrary to your impression, your life isn't ACTUALLY porn. I know it's  close. But since I'm not Barbara, I don't feel the constant need to  dominate other women. I enjoy sex with her, and with you, but it's not  all I think about." Her eyebrows drew together. "Or it WASNT. Since our  little vacation in Opal land I've been way hornier than usual. Luckily  when I'm not around you specifically I can mostly keep a lid on it.  Hence me spending so much time at Shadowcrest."

I grinned  widely at her. "Is that why you haven't been around? You were worried  you'd be too tempted to fuck and wanted to get work done?" I paused.  "Actually I can kind of see that. My life IS pretty close to porn  sometimes. Still, if you don't want me to fuck you for a while just say  so. I can focus on the other girls and let you do your own thing. It's  no fun if you're not into it."

She snarled at me. "You  KNOW I don't want that you asshole. You know how hard it is not to jump  you right now, and that the idea of forgoing sex with you completely  makes me jittery. Offering to ignore me just to make me jealous is  petty. I do think that I want to limit how much sex we have. Not all of  us are weird energy dragons that can have marathon fuck sessions for  days on end. Honestly I'd still be jonesing if Shadowcrest hadn't been  helping me detox from that ridiculous energy rich cum of yours. Were you  trying to fuck me stupid or was it just a happy accident?"

I  just shrugged. "Little of column A little of column B. Your magic and  mind are useful, so I don't want them gone, but I can't say turning you  into a squaling cum drunk mess isn't fun and appealing. I have to go  fuck my wife actually, but you're welcome to join us if you want. She  thinks you're very pretty and I know I saw you admiring her sweet little  ass a few times."

Closing her eyes Zee let out a long  breath, gritting out. "No, Nick. Not tonight. We can schedule something  later. I'm going to go home and do a once over of my library just in  case there's something on Tsaritsa I missed. You aren't exactly the  'hypothetical nonsense' type. So I have a feeling we might need the info  soon." She stood up, her face smoothing as she walked over to give me a  sweet smile and a kiss on the cheek. "Go plow your princess and let me  get some real work done, will you?" Despite her saying so, the sway she  put in her hips drew my eye to that fat ass of hers as she walked away.  With a sigh I stood up to go have one on one sex with just my wife. I  guessed being married did have SOME downsides.