Carmil was gently shaking my shoulder “Beloved? Esme? Wake up dear, I need you.” and that pulled me fulling into the moment.

  I sat up quickly “Huh, what? What’s wrong?” I asked, shaking the remaining sleep from my mind and looking at the on her face.

  She turo look at Luvetra across the room curled up as We her head softly and seemed to be trying to fort her. My giant lover turo look at me and there was a mix of difficult emotions in her face. “Oh balls, she’s probably freaking out about the dream.” I muttered and nearly smashed my fato the ground as I tried to stand without my prosthetic.

  That snapped Luv out of things however and she rushed over to make sure I hadn’t hurt myself. “Y-you should be more c-careful.”

  I pulled her close and hugged her “And you shouldn’t listen to lying nightmares.”

  She stiffened, but returhe hug anyway “Th-that was real?”

  I nodded and kissed her cheek. “I meant it too, I love you so much that I ’t imagine my life without you in it anymore. I know Carmil feels the same.”

  My elemental actually blushed, the red tint of her skin turning a deep crimson. “I… would not say-” I looked into her eyes and she swallowed audibly. “Yes, I love you deeply as well Luvetra. So much so that I worry about how it will affect my bond with Esme. You are both so dear to my heart that it is difficult to ceptualize for me. I do not think elementals were meant for such emotions as these.”

  Luv scooped up both of us into a giant hug and squeezed us tight. “I l-love you both s-s-so much, it h-hurts to, to th-, to think about. L-like my mind w-wants to run away from h-how big and sca-scary it is.”

  “Run to us instead, beloved.” Carmil said, kissing Luvetra softly.

  Wen cleared her throat nearby. “Not to interrupt your romantient, but what the fuck is going on? She woke up and ran to the other end of the tent and just curled up whimpering and wouldn’t talk besides saying something about a dream. Someone expin?”

  As the three of us extracted ourselves from each other’s embrace, I turned and cleared my throat “So uh… it seems that being the Saint of a Dream god lets me kinda… wahe Dream sometimes?”

  Wen blinked “And you what, jumped into one of Luv’s dreams?”

  “It was a nightmare! A really horrible ooo, so I had Daisy eat it and I hugged and kissed her better. Or… hoped I had.”

  Luv nodded “It was m-much better after, I just w-woke up scared because if f-felt so real and I d-did-didn’t know what it meant.”

  Weren tilted her head “Who is Daisy?”

  I ughed “Oh! She’s my friend in the Dream, she’s a baku. A creature that eats nightmares.”

  The cook just shook her head and turned away “Nope, fuck this. I’m going to go get breakfast ready ahe rest of you deal with this crap.” and quickly went outside.

  “D-Daisy was that creature? The kinda pig l-looking one?” Luv asked

  “Yes, she’s a cuddly sweetheart. We like taking walks together and seeing what’s going on in the Dream.”

  Jaina blinked from nearby “So you see into people’s dreams? Do you just… do that every night? See what’s going on in our heads?” she sounded vaguely nervous and I fought the urge to grin.

  “No no no, I’ve only been able to do it twiow and I’m still just learning to navigate so I don’t have a ton of trol over where I end up.” She rexed her shoulders and hid a smile. “But st night I did learn how to follow threads to people I know.” I gri the Healer who turned beet red “Slut.”

  “I’m gonna go help Wen!” She jumped to her feet and ran out of the yurt.

  Dekarru was walking in at that moment and gracefully side-stepped the rushing woman. She looked in and raised her brow “Do I want to know?” then she shook her head almost immediately. “No, never mind, something else o be discussed.” She walked over to me and sat “I uned with my Goddess about your s st night while you were sleeping. I actually got a response, an unusually diree. Though fusing.” She knit her brows together and stared at me. “She told me ‘Give me a few days and I’ll ask’. Which makes very little seo me. Both the answer and the fact that I got it directly and not as part of some enigmatic riddle to figure out or fusing vision with a dozen possible meanings.” she grunted.

  I blushed and smirked “I… actually think I know what that meant.”

  “You know what the Green Mother meant, more than me, her a Oracle?” she sounded quite grumpy. I couldn’t bme her that would annoy the shit out of me too.

  “So, I also got to, um, ‘une’ with my Goddess st night. Though I think it’s different in general for me because she kind of just shows up in my dreams aalk for a while. Maybe because I’m her Saint?”

  Dekarru blinked and then stared wide eyed “What happeo not saying more about your patron?”

  I cleared my throat “Uhhh, so things are progressing for her a lot and I am pretty sure I reveal a little more. To you at least. But the big thing is that my Goddess is on her way to accept an invitation to meet yoddess to discuss being allies.”

  The shaman just stared at me silently. Her mouth moved every now and then as if she was about to speak but no sound came out. Minutes passed and no one made a sound. But eventually Dekarru nodded slowly and seemingly decided to just accept that and focus on the positives. “That… sounds nice. For us I mean. oddess’s being allies would be far better for our future as a tribe.”

  “Oh! I also asked her about the whole, f retionships faster thing.”

  At that the seer, and everyone else for that matter, immediately turheir attention to me. I turo look at Carmil. I took her hands in mine ahem over my heart. “You first. Yes, she altered you to have affe towards me. She said she had to because you were going to kill me.”

  Carmil’s eyes nearly bulged from her sockets “I would ne-… oh. Ahh. Hmm.” She chewed her lip ihought for a bit before tilting her head to the side “I believe I am very muot bothered by this. I would much rather have my will maniputed than be responsible for harm, much less death, befalling my beloved. Even if that feeling is a result of said manipution. I am happy to have my loves.” She nodded.

  I kissed her cheek “I though you’d say as much.” then turo the rest of them “As for everyone else, apparently I have some kind of aura that … the words she used were ‘untangle people’s hearts’ if that makes sense?” At the looks of fusion and worry I just repeated my Goddess’s words more or less as they were told to me.

  Luvetra slid behind be and squeezed me tight. “S-so you cut through em-motional barriers just be being n-near people? Talking t-to them?”

  Dekarru snickered “You fuck people’s mental health better?”

  “That’s what I said!” I giggled “And yeah, kinda. With caveats, as always of course.”

  “Of course.” She ughed “Oh that is a huge relief, though gods you are plicated to be around. Fun though.” She grunted as she pulled herself to her feet again. “Alright, lets all go eat then figure out what we’re going to do for a week.”

  “A week?” I asked as Carmil helped me get my leg on.

  She sighed. “The elder from the Eternal Pilrs region had an emergene up and will only just be leaving for the cil today. Meaning it will be a week before we vene.” She shook her head “Word is getting out and more encves are ing. This pce is going to be packed soon.”

  Brigg chuckled from nearby “We’ll have to put a leash on Jaina.” she muttered as she pulled herself up for breakfast.

  I blinked and finally noticed the System poking me. Huh, so groping Goddess tits did in fact get me to een. I silently pulled up my Status and he two free points in Coordination and one in Focus. I remembered pns I’d made and s I had and decided that there was ohing I o shore up a bit. So I dumped all five points intth to get it to twenty and then closed the System and got to my day.

  Turns out, it was easy to figure out what we were doing that week. With the fact that we would likely be iy until autum up another yurt and made it a temporary workshop favel. Which quickly turned into a temporary workshop for her and five others who also had crafting Csses or Skills. To our surprise, this included Jaina.

  She snickered as she twisted reeds into an absolutely lovely woven basket far faster than I thought possible, telling us her Primary css was Artisan. This turned out well because when Brigg sat down to start drawing up pns for my rifle, Jaina fussed at her over it.

  “It looks like a hunk of metal with holes in it.” she grumbled.

  “It is a fekkin hunk of metal with holes in it!” the dwarf replied animatedly.

  “It shouldn’t look like ohough! It should be elegant, stunning, impressive, at least slightly intimidating. If you’re making it for Esme it should look like it’s hers!”

  The twued for a while, but I could hear the passion in their voices ahe slight grins they tried to hide. They were going to love w together. Of course, this lead to them deg to just sell the old rifle as scrap and build mine from scratch which Red was a bit depressed by. But I cheered her up by taking her into town and shopping for a couple new guns with her.

  Of course, I had more than just her giddy glee for shopping in mind. I remembered Vei’Ryn’s words. I repping for bat. Which I admitted tga once we got to the row of on and armor shops in the Market District.

  “You’re what now? Why is this a need?” She asked me, ed by the sudden shift in mood.

  I moved close and whispered in her ear “My goddess literally anded me to get stronger. Fast.”

  She sighed and nodded “Alright, thes shop for purpose, not fun, yeah?” of course, ‘not fun’ was impossible for her as she grinned and drooled over equipment.

  Red got herself a new shield. It was regur, heavy, tall enough to hide her entire body behind, and even had attats on the inner side to store small pieces of gear with. The big draw though was it had a very iing pivoting pintle mou to hold a pump a shotgun. It would fold down and away behind the shield when not i would be easy t up, fire, and pump in the shell all one handed while the shield was braced. It would take practice to actually use in a fight, but the option made dear Redagga the Wall almost horny for the thing. The shotgun she purchased to fit the thing was also a simple but rugged design that she loved.

  She mao find me a nice bolt a rifle on the heavier end, six round magazine, easily clip reloaded, with a bayotat. She mao haggle the bayo in as part of it for buying a scope and a crate of ammo and clips for it. She insisted on a sidearm for me as well, but I shot down semi-auto pistol she tried to sell me on. I wanted a revolver. Aside from just my aesthetic taste, I figured Heavy Heart Piercer would probably also work with one. Especially if it was something big and ky, like the absolute beast of hand on Red settled on for me.

  Yep. Very gd I put those points intth. Fet recoil, I’m not sure I would have been able to even lift that beast to aim properly at fifteen points. Hell, I’m not sure I would be able to keep hold of the thing now. But that was something I could work on.

  Then the part that made us both annoyed. Armor. Yeah, mundane armor didn’t do much against modern firearms but it would be required. Aside from being effective against cws ah, it would also protect us from rocks, briars, stinging is, and other enviroal worries. Not to mentioing burns from ejected shell gs. I did not one one of those hitting my dick.

  So we got measured and fitted with some standard padding and mail, pretty affordable options for something you won’t have to wait a week to be made. Though I did sider putting in orders, the varieties and optio I would need a better idea of myself in a fight to actually know what I wanted from my outfit. Redagga however, put in an order for some heavier armor. She told me that if my patron was ed about this sort of thing, she wao be ready, fort be damned.

  Ba the Encve District, we showed off our purchases and told the tribe about my o grow stronger. Red figured it would be me, her, Dekarru, and Luv, sihe others were not batants. But the shaman refused and told us to take Jaina. She he experience, both in the level gaining variety and in the more mundane aspect of practice using healing magic. This lead to a sed outing where we got a gambeson with leather vital protectors for her and a small, simple semi-auto handgun. Which Red and I had a heck of time ving her to accept, but remindihat her use of one had saved me from the angel worked in the end.

  I asked about Luv and Red smiled and told me that she had her own kit already and I would see it soon.

  So equipped and ready, I decided that the very day we would head out and hunt. Red vetoed that and said we were training tomorrow. Which I probably least to brush up on my barely remembered military training to be ho, and Jaina had never had any at all.

  Either way, tomorrow would be iing.