After having dinner with Cariad and that whole conversation, I wasn’t able to really focus enough to go out and delve into the stream on my property. So I put it off to deal with tomorrow and sacked out for the night. My dreams that night were mostly consumed with imagining where things might go with Cariad as well as what the future might hold for me and the girls.

  With our deployment to the border done, I was looking forward to a more relaxing next few weeks or months and I know the girls were also looking forward to the chance to just spend some time unwinding. Whether that actually happened was going to be something entirely separate, but we could always hope.

  Rising early the next day, I knew that I needed to get to work checking for supplies and preparing more pieces for Gloria. I had a few days before my girls would arrive at the capital and I needed to get as much done for her as possible. And that wasn’t even counting or considering if they decided to summon me back because they were bored.

  Not that I would ever complain about being called on to entertain my girls.

  The first thing that I did was make coffee. I still used the same battered French-press that I did back in my apartment, so it was just a matter of stirring up the fire and warming the kettle up.

  While that got done, I made myself a quick breakfast of oatmeal and mixed fruit from my little underground pantry.

  Most people would look at this and either think that it's a struggle meal because there’s not more variety, or think I’m spoiling myself because I’ve got fruit to go with it, I thought with a wry smile.

  The differences between reality and peoples’ expectations were so broad that it made it hard at times to take things seriously. I’d had to come to terms a long time ago with the fact that some people would always find a reason to complain about something, regardless of how true their complaints were.

  My little coffeepot made two cups of coffee, one that I finished while I was eating and the second that I took with me out into the cold to inspect the stream.

  Since my truck was tucked up in its own little secret garage now, the world outside had a level of stillness and emptiness that only the morning countryside gets. My neighbors were too far away to even see, let alone hear, as was the distant highway. I knew they were there, but could pretend that I couldn’t see them.

  Stomping over the frozen ground, I savored the sound of the brittle grass crackling under my footsteps. It wasn’t a huge thing, but the sound had an oddly satisfying sensation to it. Kind of like when you break a row of icicles off a railing or crunch through a frozen puddle.

  The stream continued to burble away, the chill in the air not yet enough to freeze it over though ice was forming around the point where it emerged from the hillside.

  Taking another sip of my steaming coffee and rolling my shoulders to snug my coat a little tighter, I closed my eyes and focused on sending my Manipulate Element ability into the rocks and earth around me.

  I felt the quiet ping of the magical pseudo-sonar that raced outwards when it found the metals in my house. Those sensations—specifically the resonance of things like iron, copper, tin, and other household metals—were excluded from the scan as it spread outward. As was the faint shifting sensation of worms in the earth and other insects that moved through the ground.

  A tiny shifting of motion in the grass a hundred yards off to my left drew my attention and I glanced that way for a moment, spotting the gray fox crouched in the brush stalking something small that had gone still.

  Probably found a mouse or a rabbit, I thought and pushed away that sensation as well.

  Using the feeling of water on stone—the regular rippling sensation that the stone felt as the water pushed on it, the gentle scrape of stone being shaped over millienia—I traced the underground spring down into the land, and found sparkling fragments all along the way.

  Good sign there, I thought, pausing to shape the Manipulate Element effect into a tendril that would scoop the precious metal out of the channel like a pipe-cleaner running through a straw.

  The trickle of water in front of me bubbled and gushed a little faster before a storm of sparkling flakes and tiny floating pebbles that tumbled out to settle in the sand at my feet.

  “I’ll get you later,” I mumbled before pushing back into the stream and tracing along the route again.

  What I found a few minutes later made me forget all about the pile of flakes at my feet.

  The dull stone I was sensing down in the earth shifted and changed, lighting up in my senses. While I’d found fragments of gold and flakes of natural electrum before, I felt it when my power reflected off of a legitimate deposit of the precious metal that the waterway ran right over top of. Time, temperature changes, and the pressure from below that pushed the water upwards slowly picked away at the deposit, pushing flakes and nuggets up along with the water.

  “Son of a bitch…” I murmured in awe as I let my awareness wash outward through the deposit of precious metal. While it wasn’t ridiculously massive, it was easily going to be enough precious metal that I’d not need to go panning for a very long time.

  My mind went into overdrive listing out what I needed to do now even while I continued to feel out the seam of metal under my feet.

  I need to get out here with a surveyor to officially mark out my property lines. I’m ninety-nine percent sure that it is on my land, but I need to be totally sure. Then confirm I have the mineral rights on the land. The agent said I did, but I need it confirmed. Only once I have that all set, I place the mineral claim. Keep it quiet so no one gets ideas, and check into what I need to do to certify and mine the ore myself. If I can work this right, I might be able to turn the jewelry thing into an even more boutique thing if I use personally collected gold that I can claim…

  Mind still spinning, I took another sip from my steaming coffee and grinned. Things were finally turning around for me.

  <><><>

  “And that’s what I’ve spent the last few days doing,” I said with a smile, running the fingers of my right hand through Kassandra’s hair gently while my dwarf lamia purred happily.

  “Sounds very productive! If this was Cortha, then I could offer more advice on how to navigate the social and bureaucratic mess that starting a mine would include…” Kassandra pouted up at me, her bottom lip sticking out cutely for several moments before she leaned forward and buried her face in my chest.

  “I’ve got it handled,” I reassured her, switching to rubbing her back instead while the dwarf lamia in my arms writhed to make herself more comfortable draped over top of me.

  The other girls in the carriage watched on with small smiles while Kassandra continued to make quiet grumbling noises and burrow even deeper into my arms as we rattled over cobblestones and down the capital city streets.

  Three days had passed since my discovery and the paperwork was already filed to form a new LLC specifically geared toward mining and refining the gold. The accountant who handled my taxes for the jewelry business on Bitsy had put me in touch with a family member who accepted a retainer to manage the paperwork and filing that would be necessary to set me up with the permits to mine and refine the gold privately.

  I’d need to set up a workspace and get several permits, but it turned out that the Colorado mining laws from the old gold-rush eras made this pretty straightforward. The biggest part was keeping things under the radar because having access to that much precious metal would tempt people.

  But not my noodle, I thought with a smile, squeezing Kassandra just a little bit tighter. She’s happy to hear about the stability and her only concerns are how she can help me.

  My eyes traced over the other girls in tight confines of the carriage and their faces all showed similar attitudes. They were happy to hear of my good fortune, without a single hint of greed or how they could also benefit from this.

  Not that they’d need my resources, I thought silently. Each of my girls is well off or wealthy in their own right. The only one I don’t know as well is Valda, but as another princess I’m sure she’s well set up.

  “Kass, you need to get off of him sometime soon,” Rieka said gently, the teasing smile on her face taking any heat or negative implication out of her words. “We are going to be arriving at the palace soon and while you may not care too much about presentation, we still need to try.”

  Kassandra groaned despondently at that, a guttural noise of disappointment that sounded like it should have been attached to someone demanding she donate an organ she was particularly fond of. But my snuggly lover pushed herself back from me with a sigh and a scowl, mumbling imprecations under her breath while tugging her clothes straight.

  Shayla, who was sitting on my other side, leaned in to help straighten my clothes and brush them off now that Kassandra wasn’t draped entirely over me—she still had her coils draped over my lap but I could only ask for so much, after all.

  “Is it really going to be that formal?” Jane asked nervously, the mouse kin scholar toying with the edge of her long skirt while tapping her booted feet together anxiously.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “I don’t expect it to be,” Rieka answered her with a warm smile. “But it is still better to be ready for the worst option so we can adjust rather than be caught by surprise.”

  “That makes sense,” Jane said quietly, her large ears folding back in concern as she pondered for a long moment. Her tuft-tipped tail wiggled over her head like a fuzzy snake dancing for attention, apparently immune to the anxiety of its owner.

  “Should we expect a formal reception from Queen Gemma?” Valda asked.

  The lizard-folk woman sitting with rigidly good posture in her seat. To be comfortable for the ride, she’d removed her sword from her hip and instead had the sheathed weapon in front of her, tip planted into the floor of the carriage and hands folded over the pommel. It made for a dynamic and powerful pose, but I could also see just a hint of anxiety in how white her knuckles were from gripping the sword.

  Looks like even Lady Valda, princess of the Ironclaw Clan, is not immune to nerves, I thought while Shayla fussed over my shirt. Then again, I can’t fault her. I’d have been anxious too if I hadn’t met Gemma several times before as well as Rieka’s father in both formal and informal settings. That makes things far easier for me.

  “Based on the orders we got to report in for debriefing, I don’t expect a formal welcome or anything too ceremonial,” Rieka said with a wave of her hand and a smile. “Mother likes her ceremonies, but she’s also practical. Standing on ceremony too much would just get in the way of getting things done, and it’s not like she’s presenting us to the court for something.”

  That comment made me twitch, but Rieka didn’t notice, thankfully. My experience with her mother was that the canny queen never did anything for just one reason when she could squeeze others in. And the fact that she’d told me before that my princess was rapidly climbing the ranks in her regard had me thinking that there was a decent chance that Gemma might use this whole situation to announce something.

  Let’s just hope that it’s something positive like an award or formally recognizing Rieka’s status again, rather than something like trying to push a political marriage on her, I thought grimly, though I kept the surge of anger off my face that the idea of someone trying to force Rieka into a marriage generated.

  The subtle jostling of the carriage as it slowed and then came to a stop brought silence to everyone inside and ears turned towards the open windows when voices called back and forth.

  I tuned my hearing upward to catch what was being said out of habit.

  “—her party. Here are the papers,” said the carriage driver, his rough voice polite but straightforward.

  “Everything looks to be in order,” said another older male voice from outside. “You may proceed.”

  The carriage jerked again and then began to move once more, but at a far slower pace and the rattling of wheels on cobblestone became more muted, signaling the change to a better-maintained road.

  “That’ll be the last checkpoint before the palace,” Rieka explained as shadows blocked the light outside for a moment before clearing up. “The driver will take us to the stableyard to unload our things and let us disembark there. That’ll be our first indication of how formal Mother wants to be.”

  “Let me guess,” I interjected, holding up my left hand like I was in a classroom while shooting Rieka a smile.

  My princess grinned back at me, waving one hand to indicate I should continue while raising an eyebrow questioningly.

  “If she meets us there without an entourage, then things will be very informal,” I started off, holding up a single finger on my left hand. “If the chamberlain meets us there, then things are formal. If the queen meets us there with an entourage then things will be formal. And if there is some kind of processional then it is ultra formal.”

  “And if no one meets us there?” Rieka asked when I stopped speaking.

  “Then either she’s in trouble or we are,” I answered with a shrug, to which Rieka nodded and smiled.

  “It is important to always keep all options in mind, no matter how unlikely they are,” Valda murmured, nodding to Rieka in acknowledgement. My princess accepted the compliment with a smile and a nod of her own.

  “The most likely situation is going to be that we show up and the chamberlain meets us there,” Rieka said, her calm smile bouncing between each of us, though Jane was the only one who looked nervous. I had a feeling that Shayla was also nervous, just better at hiding it. The clue to that was how the moth woman was still brushing and picking at my shirt.

  “Considering that we are coming from a war front and a mission to assist an allied nation, I doubt that they are going to stand on anything overly formal,” Kassandra said, finally getting her under-bust corset to sit just how she wanted it to.

  I didn’t disagree with her, but I was also distracted by the sight of those freckle-drenched mountains that my lovely lamia bore. The time in the sun in Valda’s lands had done wonders to increase the density of the cute little dots on my lover’s skin. I knew that nobles generally worked very hard to avoid things like tans, freckles, and other things that might blemish their skin, but the disregard of such superficial concerns was something that I dearly loved about Kassandra.

  Before Jane could muster another nervous question or Rieka could find another way to reassure us, the carriage began to slow and then came to a stop. I heard the thunk of the brake engaging and then the clatter of boots as the carriage driver hopped down a moment later.

  Listening to him moving around to the door to open it, I locked eyes with Rieka and raised my eyebrows questioningly. I didn’t have to say anything aloud, because my beautiful princess immediately understood the look and nodded while smiling indulgently.

  Scales flowed over my skin like water running over a rock and my face elongated into a muzzle while my hair vanished. A crown of horns emerged from the back of my head while my muscles bulged to the limit that my nice clothes would handle. Considering how the girls had insisted I change into nicer clothes when I’d arrived an hour ago—clothes that they’d specifically picked out and had ready for me—I didn’t want to risk angering them by damaging or removing that outfit.

  By the time the driver, an older bear kin man in travel ruffled clothes, opened the door, I was covered in sapphire blue scales that matched my princess’ eye color exactly and had the head of a komodo dragon with an oryx for the horns, as well as sharp claws on my hands. I’d have included wings but that would definitely have removed my shirt because of the new power.

  The driver blinked at me in surprise, swaying back half a step while his free hand dipped toward the sword at his belt before he stopped himself.

  “Master Liam, I presume?” he said in a low tone, eyes darting past me to the smiling women in the carriage.

  “Yes, that is our Liam,” Rieka answered, laughter dancing in her voice.

  “I appreciate you warning me that there would be one more in the carriage to disembark than when we loaded up this morning,” the bear kin said, his tone still pitched low and serious but his posture relaxing.

  “I’ll help the ladies out,” I said, slipping forward as Kassandra finally removed her coils from my legs.

  The driver nodded and stepped back, holding the door in one hand to allow me out and into the sunlight.

  I scanned my surroundings quickly for threats and to assess the situation. I’d made it a habit to put forward a fierce persona when I visited Gemma to trade reports in the past, so this was normal for me to do. I had explained it to an amused Rieka and she’d given me her blessing to continue.

  It makes sense to project as much intimidation as possible in this situation, I thought. Nobles tend to be pretty oblivious of threats it seems, and making sure that I look as intimidating as possible means that it is less likely anyone will do something stupid. Impossible to guarantee, but I can definitely work to lower the risks for them.

  The courtyard that we were in was large, easily large enough to accommodate a train of a dozen carriages and still have space to disembark and mingle while the vehicles moved away. A hundred yards behind us loomed the gate that led back out to the city, while off to my left was another gate that I could see grass and several large wooden stables along with a paddock of horses grazing peacefully.

  Directly in front of me loomed the large granite structure of the Coldeye castle. I knew that it had its own formal name, but I’d never bothered to memorize it since I usually popped up inside it without having to navigate overland.

  The building was massive and stern, carved of large gray granite blocks and looming high into the sky. Multiple towers protruded from the main building as well as the walls behind me. I knew that several courtyards lay hidden in different spots in the building, but from here the whole place looked like one solid building with a Gothic cathedral vibe. The sole pops of color came from white and blue banners dangling from windows as well as sections of stained glass set high in the walls that depicted members of the royal family.

  We did have a welcoming party waiting for us, one that was already moving forward even as I looked them over before turning to offer Rieka my hand in descending from the carriage.

  The welcoming party means no trouble, but it’s not the chamberlain so there is some formality. Gemma and Jonas are here, with what looks like Rieka’s immediate family and only a handful of guards, so small party? I’m guessing semi-formal but better to err on the side of caution.

  My princess alighted with an affectionate smile my way, taking in everything with a quick glance before stepping past me to clear the way for Valda, who was the next-highest in rank after her.

  The lizard-folk gave me an appraising look as she studied my scales in the afternoon light before nodding once while I helped her down. A single smooth gesture with her sword returned the sheathed weapon to its ring on her hip and she stepped by to join Rieka who was already greeting her parents.

  “My daughter, welcome home,” Queen Gemma Coldeye said as soon as she was close enough to speak without having to shout and I relaxed just a touch.

  If she’s addressing Rieka like this, then it’s on the more informal side of things, I thought while holding out a hand to Kassandra.

  My dwarf lamia, as irrepressible as always, shot me a heated look that told me she was debating just launching herself out of the carriage at me in one of her patented tackle-hugs, but I saw the moment when she decided to be demure and accepted the hand for balance.

  “Mother. Father,” Rieka said, her tone just a little more formal than Gemma was using. I could see her bowing respectfully to Gemma in my mind’s eye and brushed it aside.

  “It is good to see you returned whole, daughter,” Jonas said next, his formal tone only barely overlaying the hidden excitement I could hear in his voice.

  “My allies ensured that nothing came any closer than it absolutely had to,” Rieka replied, her tone warming as well.

  “Yes, well I would expect nothing less from your Liam,” Jonas said, his tone warming as well. “And Lady Valda, welcome to our home as well. I would imagine we can also attribute some of my daughter's protection to your able blade as well.”

  I lost what Valda said in reply amongst the rustling of Shayla’s long gown as she descended. The flutter of her moth wings as they stretched out buried the other half of the conversation, along with the cute groan of satisfaction from the stretch.

  “Just stick close to Kass,” I murmured under my breath while I steadied Shayla and my lovely moth nodded minutely, her lips ticking up in a shy smile while one antenna caressed the scales of my forehead before she stepped around to follow Kassandra to greet the nobles.

  Jane was gnawing furiously on her bottom lip when I offered her my hand, but she accepted the assistance with a trusting yet shy smile before bouncing down the steps to land on the cobblestones at my side and scampering after Shayla.

  I glanced toward the driver and he held up one hand dismissively, murmuring under his breath to me.

  “Princess Rieka ensured I was paid this morning and tipped well,” the gruff bear man said, interpreting my look as a question. “None of the ladies had any luggage with them, so I’ll be on my way.”

  “Thank you for your assistance,” I replied, my voice more rumbly than normal because of the changes to my body and voicebox. The large bear man just nodded and hopped up onto the driving bench to get his team moving, allowing me to close and latch the door.

  Turning back to the group of nobles around my girls, I took a deep breath and pressed forward. I’d already weathered meeting Rieka’s dad, how much trouble could the rest of her family be?

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