Other Books to Keep
6/2 noon
I had a spring in my step as I went to meet with a captured Ysera. Its almost certainly at least partly because of the couple’s fruit, of course. However, it was also important for me to talk to her. She was one of the newest members of my harem and a creature of incredible beauty, but she was also a demigoddess and leader of a powerful, if besieged, faction. I needed her support and I needed to know what I could do to make that not a suicidal action for her.
When I approached the sleeping dragon, she turned her closed eyes towards me and immediately assumed her visage. She was now a beautiful dark violet skinned elf lounging in a clearing, just for me. “Hello, Erich. I believe we have much to discuss.”
“I agree. Where would you like to start?”
“Well, this may be a bit odd, but I would like to accept you as one of my consorts. It may be overwhelming, but there’s nothing stopping me from choosing a mortal to fertilize my eggs. I can’t explain it, I just want you near me.” It was a strange kind of absolute self assurance. She was certain that I’d accept the position unless I was secretly already married or the like. The idea of someone turning her down was unthinkable. She was fully onboard… but she didn’t understand the situation yet.
I smiled. “Counter-offer. I allow you to become my consort.” As I spoke, I gave her a new obedience: euphoria for submitting to my authority.
“Oh? What’s the difference?” She had a smirk. Of course, I was just an unusually appealing human to her conscious mind.
“Where the power lies. You see, you belong to me now, and you always will. For the rest of your existence, I am your master. That probably would have bothered you even a few days ago, wouldn’t it?”
“I suppose so. As things stand it feels like a dream. I don’t often lose track of what is happening to my body while I’m in the Dream, but this certainly feels more like a fantasy than reality.” She spoke lightly. “I have flights of fancy sometimes, when one of my bodies isn’t engaged in anything important.”
“If that makes it easier to accept, sure. But if this is just a dream, I don’t think there’s any reason we can’t continue while you take care of this.” I pulled my cock out, and the sleepwalking demigoddess took it in one hand without even thinking about it. She began rubbing it gently.
“If you’d like. I can’t really think of any reason not to. What was it that you wanted to speak to me about?”
“Other than you becoming a member of my harem? Small things. I asked you about getting in contact with your sister. I’m not asking anymore. By whatever means necessary, you will arrange for Alexstrasza to receive one of these necklaces and put it on. Also, use your mouth too.”
“As you wish- wait. No. She needs peace. I don’t want to disturb her!” As she was saying that, she had fallen to her knees in front of me to continue jacking me off. She started planting kisses along my shaft, despite her furrowed brow.
“I promise that any pain it causes her will be outstripped by pleasure and happiness, by a substantial margin. She will love it, and it will save her from further tragedy. For that matter, I’ll want to get a necklace to Malygos as well if at all possible.”
She pensively sucked on my cock, not entirely convinced. “Nozdormu?”
“Only if you’re sure you can get it to him and get him to wear it. Unlike you, I suspect he knows more about what the amulets do.”
“Ahhh. The amulet. That makes sense. Well. If you leave one I can probably get it to Alexstrasza. But I haven’t seen Malygos in person in over a decade.” Lick. “I think I could get in to see him in person, but that would require my full attention for at least an hour, even if you bring my body to the Nexus and I only need to awaken on this side for the duration of the meeting. He wouldn’t see me if he didn’t think I was taking him seriously.”
“Fair enough. Mmm. That said, I do have something for you to do that will take you out of the dream for around half an hour. It will make you substantially stronger, I think. How quickly can you arrange for that?”
She pulled off of my cock and looked up at me with a scowl. “I’m actively fighting a war for the survival of my children. Perhaps I could manage it tonight. When all are sleeping it is more difficult for both sides of our conflict to maneuver. Hopefully I’ll be able to step out without consequences, but it had best be a substantial payoff indeed.”
“It’ll have to do. Would I be distracting you in the dream if we had sex?” I checked the time. I had an hour left before I was going to meet with Azuregos and a few more hours before the Sentinels and the Horde were going to meet up to finally clear the portal. I set a couple alarms.
“Not at all. Just don’t expect too much creativity. I’m acting entirely on impulse.” I looked her over. I could live with that.
••••••••••
Lady Irma Whitelock of Moonbrook looked over the books. She’d been given an initial budget of five hundred gold pieces, authority over all non-combat assets of the retinue, and been told to make back one million. The task was preposterous, but she was able to fully immerse herself in it. Doing so was… well, if sex felt like this for other people she could imagine why everyone was so obsessed with it.
She drew up a list of captured production centers first. Darkshire. Twilight Grove. Raven Hill. Westfall, especially Moonbrook. The many businesses in Stormwind that they now owned. The leatherworker and alchemist in Darnassus. The new lumberyard that was being developed in Feralas. The mines of Xoroth, to some degree.
Most businesses did not have a tremendous profit margin, usually making less than ten gold a day in all but the most lucrative markets. Of course, she wasn’t actually analyzing net profits. The closest thing she had to compare to was gross income, before deducting expenses. That was a bit more workable. The Eastvale logging camp made around two hundred gold in gross income, but that was sold to Stormwind, a city which is in a heavily wooded area. She suspected that the output, sent to Orgrimmar or Thunder Bluff, would be closer to five hundred per day. Substantial, but only a small fraction of the daily output required by the objective. She put in a request to possess the owner of the lumber yard anyway.
Having a member of the retinue join the Stormwind army, or recruit someone, had proven functional. Ten members of the Rampant Lions had been encouraged to join, bringing their own standard issue equipment, provided by Lakeshire’s local armorer; the first group of five had consisted of all retinue members. The second had consisted of one member of the retinue and four non-captured recruits. Each had been worth roughly the same amount, about 11 gold, which tallied up to the approximate combined value of their armor, weapons, and first aid supplies. Standardization was not all that important to the Alliance outside of certain specialized units. If they had adequate equipment, it would be put to good use. Further, as long as a member of the retinue was ultimately the impetus for the resources getting to the front, it would count. Notably, the people themselves were not included, only what they brought with them.
She noted the recruitment centers, and arranged for booths to be set up selling useful equipment to those looking to enlist. Social talent would make for some very persuasive hawkers, and selling directly to the soldiers would reduce the financial strain on Stormwind, allowing them to make more large bulk purchases. Of fruit and grain, for example.
Eva was an unusual boon, because she was able to turn complete trash into simple magical charms. Of course, many of those charms were themselves not very useful or worth the money, but with her daughter’s help she could make dozens and dozens of them. Then an enchanter could disenchant the charms and apply the magic in a more productive way, such as turning fallen branches into reasonably powerful wands.
The fruit generated by the tree of life seemed similar to Sunfruit, a magical fruit grown in Quel’Thalas and northern Lorderon. A single fruit provides all the nutrients and calories required for a full day of combat or heavy labor. The Argent Dawn prized them as a palatable and easy to carry field ration which would keep for a long time if dried. Sixty silver each. If they maintained their current number of wisps and built more moonwells, each well would effectively produce 6 gold per day. Still so little.
Lady Proudmore had put in several requests for iron, lumber, leather, reagents, and more. Things she would normally get shipped in over the course of a few weeks. Buying things in Stormwind for her and presenting her with a bill a few hours later was doing some good, certainly. She had brought in over 600 gold in freight already, but her own coffers were only so deep. She was going to need to raise taxes and borrow gold in order to get everything in place within a few weeks. More importantly, she was of the Alliance, and thus of secondary priority.
The Forsaken were mobilizing for total war. Blessedly, likely due to a loophole in the wording of the mission, contributions to any Horde war effort counted. When around eight percent of the city’s population, those captured en masse by Sylvanas or willingly subjecting themselves to the rejuvenation treatment, dedicated themselves to production of weapons, armor, bandages, body bags, clothing, thread, bombs, and anything else that might have some small chance of assisting in the war against the Scourge, quite a lot could be produced. Over the last two days almost two thousand gold worth of resources had been accumulated, especially by the Royal Apothecary society and the expedition into Silverpine forest. This might be the saving grace of the mission, if it could be maintained and accelerated, but even that level of production wouldn’t be enough on its own. Only one thousand gold per day was substantial, but would take over a year to meet their quotas.
Dremuus, at Irma’s prompting, had sent a skorpid corpse to Hahrana Ironhide to assess the viability of using its exoskeleton as raw material. She knew a few designs that could use skorpids, though they tended to be difficult to work with. Very tough and good conductors of magical energy though; not terrible for a shaman, so a properly made suit of Skorpid armor would go for around 11 gold on commission from her. Irma had been quite excited until she heard the second part. Unfortunately, the quality of the chitin was inconsistent. Hahrana would need the hides of around fifty skorpids to harvest the choicest parts and make one suit. One. To be fair, nearly a thousand of the beasts had died already today at the hands of the farstriders and roving packs of worgen, along with several thousand more creatures with much less useful corpses. 22 silver per Silithid was not bad. It just wasn’t anywhere near as good as 11 gold per skorpid. She was sitting at around 1300 gold for today. Not nearly enough.
Registering the retinue with the military as formally recognized soldiers and outfitting them exceptionally well may be one of the better strategies. Perhaps even constructing an entire military base in enemy territory. She was about to contact Mistress Nozara to ask about outfitting the retinue with Fel Iron arms and armor when she received a message regarding a new member of the retinue and opened a channel of communication to him.
“Ah. Mr. Revilgaz. I do hope we shall become very well acquainted. I believe I will need to take out a loan, hopefully with favorable rates? I believe some rather extensive investments are in order.”